Toby Wilkinson book wins prize

The Bookseller

Bloomsbury's The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt: The History of a Civilisation from 3,000 BC to Cleopatra has won this year's £3,000 Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History.

Written by Toby Wilkinson, the book was commended by the judges for its "boldness, vivacity and authority".

Chair of judges Richard Davenport-Hines said: "We were captivated by Wilkinson's book . . . in describing remote societies, [he] has a deceptive lucidity which belies the precision of his expertise. His subject matter and his sensibility are both unusual."