by Andrew Robinson

Book Extracts

The above is the opening paragraph of the paperback edition of Cracking the Egyptian Code: The Revolutionary Life of Jean-François Champollion. ​Read the full Prologue below.

Read extracts from the following books:

​​2011: 
The Apu Trilogy:

Satyajit Ray and the Making of an Epic 

• Chapter 1 ("Self-taught film-maker")

2011: 
Genius:

A Very Short Introduction

• Chapter 1 ("Defining genius")

2012: 
Earthquake:

Nature and Culture

• Chapter 1 ("Earth-shattering events")

• Introduction, and Postscript to 2nd edn (2023)
• List of Contributors

• Prologue, and Preface to 2nd edn (2022)

• Contents and Introduction
• List of Contributors

• Preface

• Chapter 1 ("An enigmatic world")

• Introduction ("Earthquakes and history")

• Preface

2021:

Satyajit Ray:

The Inner Eye

• Epilogue to 3rd edn ("A century of Ray")
  

2023:

The Last Man Who Knew Everything:

Thomas Young      

• Postscript to 2nd edn ("Polymathy then--and now?")