A Passion for Egypt: Arthur Weigall, Tutankhamun and the 'Curse of the Pharaohs'. - book review

Contemporary Review, August, 2002

A Passion for Egypt: Arthur Weigall, Tutankhamun and the 'Curse of the Pharaohs'. Julie Hankey. I. B. Tauris. [pounds sterling]18.95. 380 pages. ISBN 1-86064566-6. In Egypt, then part of the British Empire, the years before the Great War saw an upsurge of interest in Middle Eastern archaeology, both Egyptian and Biblical.

Among the young men involved in this was Arthur Weigall, Chief Inspector of Antiquities for Upper Egypt. Weigall had an interesting career after he left Egypt and archaeology and went on to become a newspaper reporter, theatrical set-designer, song writer, novelist and film critic. When he died in 1934 at the early age of 53 the popular papers naturally tied the event to the 'curse of Tutankhamnun' because of Weigall's part in Lord Carnarvon's discovery. Drawing on a wide range of family archives the author, Weigall's granddaughter, gives readers a portrait not only of the imperial administrator and archaeologist but of an entire generation of British men. This biography is written with grea t affection which does not undermine the writer's detachent and objectivity. The book opens a door on a world that is now part of history and reveals one of the more fascinating, if minor, actors on the great stage of British Imperial history. (T.B.)