![]() Irene Vallejo really has done her research and her love of the written word really pours out of every page. It was Mark Antony who brought many thousands of scrolls to the great library as a gift to his love that was Cleopatra. When you think back thousands of years to the great library of Alexandria and the thousands of scrolls that that must have contained. But this this is not just a history of books, as Irene Vallejo covers a wide spectrum of topics, which is why I think this book will become a classic over time, of this I have no doubt. I can really understand why Papyrus has sold over a million copies worldwide. ![]() It is a pure delight to read from the first page to the last. Irene Vallejo takes the reader on journey that for anyone who has a love of books and their history will rejoice. This really is the story of the birth of the alphabet and the first papyrus scrolls. A book that has become an international bestseller. One of the most incredible books of this year has to be Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World ( Hodder & Stoughton) by Irene Vallejo and translated by Charlotte Whittle. Imagine a book that would take you back to the earliest days of writing when before the earliest forms of paper it was on tablets of stone, then the same book would bring you right up to modern times. In this sweeping tour of the history of books, the wonder of the ancient world comes alive and along the way we discover the singular power of the written word. Vallejo takes us to mountainous landscapes and the roaring sea, to the capitals where culture flourished and the furthest reaches where knowledge found refuge in chaotic times. Weaved throughout are fascinating stories about the spies, scribes, illuminators, librarians, booksellers, authors, and statesmen whose rich and sometimes complicated engagement with the written word bears remarkable similarities to the world today: Aristophanes and the censorship of the humourists, Sappho and the empowerment of women’s voices, Seneca and the problem of a post-truth world. Journeying along the battlefields of Alexander the Great, beneath the eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, at Cleopatra’s palaces and the scene of Hypatia’s murder, award-winning author Irene Vallejo chronicles the excitement of literary culture in the ancient world, and the heroic efforts that ensured this impressive tradition would continue. Long before books were mass produced, those made of reeds from along the Nile were worth fighting and dying for. Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World by Irene Vallejo.
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