The bestselling phenomenon - an enthralling 6 000-year journey through the history of books and
reading A FINANCIAL TIMES ECONOMIST AND MAIL ON SUNDAY BOOK OF THE YEAR SHORTLISTED FOR THE
BRITISH ACADEMY BOOK PRIZE 2023 'Outstanding universal and unique' NEW YORK TIMES 'A literary
phenomenon.' TLS 'Masterly.' ECONOMIST 'Mindboggling' TELEGRAPH Long before books were
mass-produced scrolls hand copied on reeds pulled from the Nile were the treasures of the
ancient world. Emperors and Pharaohs were so determined to possess them that they dispatched
emissaries to the edges of the earth to bring them back. In Papyrus celebrated classicist
Irene Vallejo traces the dramatic history of the book and the fight for its survival. This is
the story of the book's journey from oral tradition to scrolls to codices and how that
transition laid the very foundation of Western culture. And it is a story full of heroic
adventures bloodshed and megalomania - from the battlefields of Alexander the Great and the
palaces of Cleopatra to the libraries of war-torn Sarajevo and Oxford. An international
bestseller Papyrus brings the ancient world to life and celebrates the enduring power of the
written word.
