Leonard Cottrell (1913–1974)

A cultured look through a modern eye at some of the grandest wonders of the ancient world, Leonard Cottrell's 1960 book Wonders of Antiquity benefits from the more refined, essayistic style of his generation. A more recent book discussing the Seven Wonders of the World couldn't fail to be old-hat, gimmicky or written shallowly, but Cottrell takes a hoary old topic and restores that magic and mystery – that wonder – to it.

After discussing the Seven Wonders, Cottrell surprises us further show more by discussing, with even more élan, buildings and monuments that he believes deserve to be discussed alongside the official 'Seven'. These are not modern buildings (the youngest discussed is from the Middle Ages) and yet the freshness with which the author discusses them is engaging. The Egyptian wonders have an obvious appeal, but perhaps Cottrell's best writing comes in the chapter on Krak des Chevaliers, the Crusader castle. While impressive, this isn't the most obvious candidate for a 'wonder', an evocative, magical place, but in Cottrell's hands we see it as such. Ultimately, Wonders of Antiquity is a fascinating topic delivered by a writer of some calibre, and that's all that's needed to make any title worth reading. show less

For its age a very good biography of one of the worlds greatest generals. Written in the 60's it has the benefit of being written by the author as he traveled from New Carthage to and down Italy, attempting to follow Hannibals exact route as much as possible. This lends itself to some unique view points and scholarly conclusions on the authors part.

While the author is firmly in the 'Hannibal was motivated purely by revenge' camp believing the exact scene where his father makes him swear an show more oath etc he is fairly objective in dissecting the rest of the Roman sources and pointing out which is probably propaganda and which is not. The author has a knack for putting you on the ground level in some of the battle scenes which is excellent in my opinion. Very good read. show less

Egyptological nostalgia. Leonard Cottrell was a journalist who wrote a series of popular books on archaeology in the 1950s and 1960s (this particular book was first published in 1960). As soon as I got a library card I read every one I could find. This particular one turned up at somebody’s yard sale and I bought it for sentimental reasons. It’s still engaging, though, alas, a little outdated; one of the ironies of ancient history is that it changes every few years as new stuff gets dug show more up.


Life Under The Pharaohs would be more accurately titled Life Under Thutmoses III; Cottrell focuses on Rekhmire, Thutmoses III’s vizier. Cottrell mixes chapters of straightforward description with imagined episodes in Rekhmire’s life; he sails down the Nile from a visit to Egyptian possessions in Syria; attends a happy return party at his estate; his daughter flirt with various suitors; his sons go to school and join the army; there’s some sickness requiring a physician; and Rekhmire and his wife inspect their tomb. Cottrell invents a youngest son to allow for a discussion of Egyptian schooling, but the other sons and daughters are all attested.


Despite being 50-odd years old, all of this is pretty well done. Cottrell’s suggestion (based on work by Sir Alan Gardiner) that the Phoenician alphabet (and, therefore, ours) was originally based on Egyptian hieroglyphs is no longer accepted, but that’s the only major difference from modern understanding I noted. Cottrell’s quotes from Egyptian texts use the unfortunate convention of the time that the language should be translated to a sort of King James Bible English, which might be a little off-putting.


There are, of course, much more modern popular books – my personal favorites are Barbara Mertz’s Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs and Red Land, Black Land. However, a young person interested in Egyptology or ancient history in general would not be badly misled by reading Cottrell. show less

A portrait of a very distant era, with both literary and archaeological support. Leonard Cotrell was a very skilled popularizer and this remains one of his more reprinted books. The emperor in question was a very focussed tyrant, and has influenced almost all Chinese rulers to this day.