Just Do It by Maxine Morrey is out today 🧡!
As someone who’s always been interested in the mysteries and faded glamour of Ancient Egypt, I’ve long had a hankering to write an archaeologist heroine. This was only compounded by my love for the British Museum in London, notably the Egyptian Room (or rather rooms as the layout has been rejigged).
With a lack of funds or the ability to visit Egypt, I indulge in ‘armchair travel’ to ancient lands with books, films and documentaries. A trip is definitely on the wish list though. How wonderful to be cruising down the Nile, book in one hand, cocktail in the other and incredible history all around. I did see a trip that uses the actual boat that Agatha Christie sailed on, so as a lover of both aspects, that sounds amazing! With the onset of the pandemic, my regular ‘quarterly or so’ trips to London were brought to an abrupt halt and I’ve found it difficult, for a variety of reasons, to get back into doing them. However, in anticipation of writing this book, last year I visited the British Museum to once more get that sense of awe of being amongst those relics.
Gazing at parts of colossus, or recreations of the most enormous doors, it’s easy to imagine the fantastic buildings that these once guarded. And then there’s the mummies. As a child they fascinated me, but as an adult there’s another layer, a layer of sadness, especially when you see a tiny one which was obviously a baby. From what I’ve read, mummification was only available to those of a certain status so these must have been people of wealth, treated with care and reverence. Records show many tombs were raided within hours of the people being laid to rest but these bodies, if not desecrated, were just left behind. Unlike those who had laid them to rest, they were seen as worthless in the eyes of the robbers. Thankfully now they are revered once more.
I’ve twice missed the Tutankhamun exhibitions but, when I do eventually get to Egypt, a visit to see arguably the most famous mummy of them all is a must. Until then I’ll just have to sit with that drink in a comfy spot and dream of drifting down the Nile …