Red Land, Black Land – Daily Life in Ancient Egypt by Barbara Mertz

Ever since I first encountered Barbara Mertz's writing, I've fallen in love with her voice and style, and her Red Land, Black Land – Daily Life in Ancient Egypt really hit the mark for me considering that I'm currently doing an absolute ton of research for a novel I'm working on. But first a word on the narrator, Lorna Raver, who really captures the author's somewhat cheeky, often humorous tone. She most certainly adds a whole extra dimension to the listening experience.

As the book's title suggests, this is an overview of daily life in Egypt, from the royal pinnacle of ancient Egyptian civilisation, the pharaoh and his pyramids, all the way down to the Black Land's peasants. In it, we gain an almost tactile idea of what life during the ancient times must have been like – what people wore, how they built their homes, what pets they kept, what they ate. For a subject that can, excuse my choice of words, be as dry as dust, Barbara injects wit and verve into the text in a way that makes for an engaging journey of discovery.

Some of you might have encountered Barbara Mertz's Amelia Peabody mysteries (which I recently started reading, and let me tell you the writing is a treasure), so to have this book filled with such a comprehensive overview of what life during the ancient times was possibly like is marvellous. It's difficult to parse that the book first came out more than fifty years ago! The prose still feels fresh, and while I'm sure there are plenty more discoveries we can discuss, if you're new to ancient Egypt (or like me, even if you're not) Red Land, Black Land will still take you on a vastly entertaining and informative journey of discovery.

I could probably be an endless Barbara Mertz fangrrrl so I'm going to leave off here by saying that if you're looking for an introduction into ancient Egypt, then you cannot go wrong with the two non-fiction books she wrote on the topic. I've finally tracked down a hard copy of Temples, Tombs and Hieroglyphs, and I'll continue trawling second-hand bookshops until I find Red Land, Black Land.