Cracking the Egyptian Code: The Revolutionary

This finely illustrated biography - the first in English - charts Champollion's dramatic life and achievements: how, against the odds, he began to decipher a lost world, led an expedition to Egypt with royal backing, lived in the tombs of the Valley of the Kings, and made the voices of the pharaohs and their subjects speak. Living life to the full, he formed undying friendships and rivalries - but his obsession eventually drove him into an early death, at the age of only 41.