Toby Wilkinson is an acclaimed Cambridge-based Egyptologist and the author of seminal books on life in ancient Egypt. His take on ancient and colonial history is impeccable ... His ancient sources are as thorough and as fascinating as any I have ever read ... Wilkinson's eye for significant detail, his great curiosity about and affection for his subject, justify the retelling ... The most compelling parts are the ones where Wilkinson draws on his extensive knowledge of Egypt's ancient past

Anthony Sattin, Observer

Colourful … Without the River Nile there would be no Egypt. That might seem like entry-level geography, but Toby Wilkinson's achievement in his enjoyable survey of the Egyptian Nile's key stretch from Aswan to Cairo is to illustrate the point so compellingly ... Dexterously done and rich in detail ... Brilliant

Sunday Telegraph

Thorough, erudite and enthusiastic … Wilkinson does his best to bring the ancient Egyptians to life, and he is a great authority on the subject

Sunday Times

I had always presumed, before I read Wilkinson's book, that it was impossible to write a history of Egypt which combined scholarship, accessibility, and a genuine sense of revelation. I was wrong

Tom Holland, Observer

The foremost Egyptologist of his time ... shares his erudition with us in easy prose which never talks down to us, bringing those times and places splendidly to life

Nicholas Bagnall, Sunday Telegraph

The eminent Egyptologist from Cambridge University blends contemporary description with digestible doses of history and anecdote from the time of the Pharaohs to the present day. The book is made timely by a reference to recent events

Independent