Stevie‘s review of The Collector’s Daughter by Gill Paul
Historical Biographical Fiction published by William Morrow Paperbacks 07 Sep 21
Much has been written about the excavation of Tutankhamun’s tomb and the working relationship between Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon, but less is popularly known about the involvement of Carnarvon’s daughter, Lady Evelyn Herbert. This novel puts her right at the centre of the story and follows two periods of her life: the time she spent in Egypt as a young adult and her later years in London during the 1970s. Born in 1901, Eve grew up at Highclere Castle, surrounded by her father’s collection of Egyptian artefacts – which developed into a shared interest with him, along with her love of horses. Although Eve longed to visit Egypt for herself, the trip was delayed due to war until she reached 18 and was able to travel there with both her parents, her mother keen to find a husband for Eve amongst the ex-pat population and her father just as keen to observe Howard Carter’s latest discoveries in the Valley of the Kings. Eve, naturally, preferred the latter, although she did also meet the man she was eventually to marry at one of the balls her mother dragged her along to.
Eve went on to enjoy a long and happy relationship with her husband, although her dreams of becoming an archaeologist were thwarted by her father’s early death – after which she returned to London, never again to visit Egypt – and her own health suffered after a serious car crash some years later. We first meet Eve in the 1970s, as she is recovering from the latest in a long line of strokes, thought to have been triggered by a head injury incurred in the accident. As those around her try to trigger Eve’s memory, she finds herself returning time and again to thoughts of Egypt, more so after she learns that an Egyptian archaeologist has uncovered new evidence about Tutankhamun’s burial. This younger woman suspects that Eve and her father took valuable items from the tomb and is keen to recover them for her own country’s museums and bolster her own flagging career in the process.
While Eve is keen to help, she is worried about the damage to her father’s reputation if she admits that they entered the tomb before its official opening, and that they took artefacts away as souvenirs. Furthermore, she remembers owning an artefact that she wants to give back, but has no recollection of where it might be now. We follow Eve through her failing health and patchy recollections of recent events, as she tries to do the right thing in spite of her husband’s misgivings.
While I liked the basic premise of the book, I found the characters difficult to warm to, fascinating as the real people on whom they were based must have been. I’d have liked to have read at least some of the story from the point of view of the more modern archaeologist and got a proper feel for what was really driving her. Likewise, I’d have liked to see more of the contrast between the excavations of the 1920s and the 1970s. Eve’s memory lapses were painful for me for personal reasons, but that’s no reflection on the book itself. I would like to read more about Eve and those around her, probably from a purely factual angle, though.
Grade: C
Summary:
Lady Evelyn Herbert was the daughter of the Earl of Carnarvon, brought up in stunning Highclere Castle. Popular and pretty, she seemed destined for a prestigious marriage, but she had other ideas. Instead, she left behind the world of society balls and chaperones to travel to the Egyptian desert, where she hoped to become a lady archaeologist, working alongside her father and Howard Carter in the hunt for an undisturbed tomb.
In November 1922, their dreams came true when they discovered the burial place of Tutankhamun, packed full of gold and unimaginable riches, and she was the first person to crawl inside for three thousand years. She called it the “greatest moment” of her life—but soon afterwards everything changed, with a string of tragedies that left her world a darker, sadder place.
Newspapers claimed it was “the curse of Tutankhamun,” but Howard Carter said no rational person would entertain such nonsense. Yet fifty years later, when an Egyptian academic came asking questions about what really happened in the tomb, it unleashed a new chain of events that seemed to threaten the happiness Eve had finally found.
Read an excerpt.
