Pharoah's Egypt

Lively, colourful and fizzing with energy, this introduction to Egypt is as original and refreshing as we might expect from this talented husband-and-wife author-illustrator team. Designed as a kind of sketchbook-cum-notebook, the pages are rich with detail and hand lettering, while the inclusion of photographic elements such as a scattering of flower petals, a squashed fly or papyrus head helps reinforce the notion of being a ‘fly on the wall’. It was, the imprint details tell us, ‘Researched on location in Egypt and London’. We learn how life was lived in Ancient Egypt, from the royal court of Ramesses II to the mudbrick houses of ordinary people where we see beadmakers, potters and papyrus makers at work. Our guide is Huya, a scribe, but somehow this editorial device is never quite worked through and he disappears altogether in the later part of the book. However, this quibble aside, with Egypt such a popular topic in the history curriculum the book is bound to be in demand to support projects and homework.