Amelia B Edwards: The 'Queen of Egyptology'
Launch on 14 June 2025
Amelia Blanford Edwards was so much more than a pioneer of British Egyptology. She was a writer, musician, artist, activist, and explorer. She is remembered for different reasons, by different people, in different ways. This volume offers new revelations about Amelia’s private life and her relationships with women that led her, ultimately, to the founding of the Egypt Exploration Fund (now Society).
What circumstances in her life led Amelia Edwards to Egypt and what happened after her famous journey ‘A Thousand Miles Up the Nile’? To answer these questions, Carl Graves navigates Amelia’s complicated personal life, unpacking the events that surrounded the foundation of the Egypt Exploration Fund (now Society). Her legacy in Egyptology ends with the equally intriguing journey of an oil painting by Florence Blakiston Attwood-Mathews, now in the collection of the Society. But who really is the woman in the painting?
- ISBN: 978-0-85698-268-2 (paperback); 978-0-85698-269-9 (eBook)
- Published: June 2025
- Size: 234 × 156 mm
- Pages: 164
Contents:
Foreword | Timeline of events | Map | Acknowledgements | Introduction | The Path to Egypt, 1831–1873 | Egypt: A Thousand Miles Up the Nile | Founding the Fund | Beyond Amelia | Epilogue
Praise for this book
It’s fabulous! A beautifully illustrated, impeccably researched and intimate biography - that brings us to face to face with a formidable, pioneering woman, her life and loves.
Carl Graves is, in my opinion, the living person who knows Amelia Edwards best. His coverage of her early life, Egyptology work, and legacy is so carefully done. He dove into archives, read her letters in detail, searched for other memories about her, and really got to know the person she was, warts and all. Graves bases this work on that research and other published scholarship. He also includes his own memories and experiences with Egyptology’s Queen Amelia. This book is unlike any other you’ll read about Amelia Edwards, and everyone will learn something new about her.
…the most important book about Amelia Edwards to date!
