Book Review: Cracking the Egyptian Code

The Independent, UK (Review by Brian MOrton)

Cracking The Egyptian Code: The Revolutionary Life Of Jean-François Champollion, By Andrew Robinson 

More of a summary of Champollion than a review of of the book.

This is the first full biography of Champollion in English. Robinson has previously written about Young and about Michael Ventris, decipherer of Linear B, but he isn't blinded by knowledge of his subject and he lacks the faintly sensational touch of Lesley and Roy Adkins' book The Keys of Egypt: The Race to Read the Hieroglyphics. He presents instead a convincing and warm-hearted intellectual portrait of Champollion, who died at 41 after transforming our understanding of the ancient world.