Page 88 - All About History - Issue 33-15

Reviews

IN BED WITH THE

ANCIENT EGYPTIANS

Get under the pharaohs’ sheets with this saucy exposé

Author Charlotte Booth Publisher Amberley
Price £20 Released Out now
hey’re one of the most sexualised Sex in general was not considered the taboo
civilisations in history, but just how accurate subject that it became in the centuries that
are the modern-day depictions of the followed, and it was often performed outside of
Ancient Egyptians? In her latest book, author marriage and within the confines of crowded
TCharlotteBoothdemystifiesthelivesand family homes.
loves of the pharaohs and their subjects, ensuring But the book is not all about lust and
notasinglegorydetailisleftoutofwhatis procreation. Extracts from their love poetry
acclaimedasthefirstgeneralhistorybookonsex reveal a more sensitive side to the Ancient
in Ancient Egypt. Egyptians that many readers may not have been
Of course, filling 300-odd pages with wisdom aware of previously, as so many of the studies
solely on their bedroom antics would be quite a focus on their immense building projects and
feat, so Booth looks at sex in the wider context gruesome funerary rituals.
of beauty, love, marriage and childbearing. She Frustratingly for the less prudish reader,
also examines Egyptian attitudes to prostitution, the 16 gallery pages at the centre of the book
homosexuality and incest, some of which may aren’t quite as graphic as you’d find in a book
surprise you. Rather than the inbred folk they are on Roman sex lives, for example, but provide
made out as being, incest was in fact forbidden a useful visual aid regardless. Overall, In Bed
outside of the royal family, and the Egyptians had With The Ancient Egyptians is an accessible and
a relatively modern outlook on same-sex relations. enjoyable read that will thrill any enthusiast.

THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE

Or, ‘A 19th-century guide to spending your gap year’

Author Charles Darwin Publisher Zenith Press Price £25 Released Out now
RECOMMENDS…
oday, if a 22 year-old natural fauna he trapped (and often dissected),
history student mentioned that Darwin describes volcano islands and
Hattin: Great they were going to spend a couple soaring cliffs with the fabulous prose of
Battles Series of years globetrotting, you might an educated early Victorian gentleman.
Author: John France Price: £18.99 Traise an eyebrow and ask a few Turns out, Darwin’s grandfather was
Publisher: Oxford University Press
If you’re after questions. But 200 years ago, when a poet and natural philosopher, which
an in-depth a young Charles Darwin was handed doesn’t surprise us a bit.
study of the the opportunity of a lifetime, this was This edition is, thankfully, more
Battle of unheard of. What must his friends and than just a reprint in hardback. It’s
Hattin from a
military point family have made of what would have been furnished with illustrations
of view, this been quite a risky adventure? and excerpts from Darwin’s later,
is not the There’s little of this kind of personal scientific and cultural watershed work
book for you.
France’s new reflection in Darwin’s account of his On The Origin Of Species, as well as
study on five years circumnavigating the planet, modern photos that give his memoirs
the subject although he is quite sentimental when appreciable context. And there are notes
is more drawing comparisons with the many from the captain of the Beagle, Robert
interested
in exploring new horizons that he encounters and Fitzroy, in the form of small boxes of
how the 12th-century battle fits into his homeland. text for a well-rounded perspective of
the grand sweep of history. The scope His famous voyage took him to their journey from start to finish. The
is ambitious, and comes across a little
like a university thesis. That said, if you untouched wildernesses that gap- Voyage Of The Beagle is compulsory
want to understand more about how year travellers and scientists alike can reading for any biologist and this
the current tension between East and only read about today. So between particular volume, while far from travel-
West is rooted deep in our shared past, paragraphs of infinitely detailed sized, could be a source of inspiration
this is a good place to start.
discussion of strange new flora and for those bitten by the travel bug.
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