Papyrus

THE MILLION-COPY GLOBAL BESTSELLER

By: Irene Vallejo

Narrated by: Sophie Roberts

THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER
A FINANCIAL TIMES, ECONOMIST AND MAIL ON SUNDAY BOOK OF THE YEAR

An enthralling 6,000-year journey through the history of books and reading

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.

(P) 2022 Hodder & Stoughton Limited©2022 Irene Vallejo

Critic reviews

A literary phenomenon . . . didactic and daring . . . elegant and richly digressive.

left liberal leanings,but overall worth listening

author has strong leftist views, yet it rarely makes overall narrative unacceptable. I still learned some interstellar stuff from the book because author knows her subject very well.
yet I'd like to have more scientific research on the subject