According to Wilbur Smith, this novel was based on scrolls found in an Egyptian burial tomb in 1988. Apparently, he just "made it more accessible to a modern audience" by adding dialogue and narrative voice. I've been unable to confirm this but what the hey: it is a great story whether true or not.
The narrator is Taita, a slave-eunuch of the woman who eventually becomes Queen of Egypt. He is a scholar and a poet as well as being brilliant and beautiful. The woman, Lostris, is married to the reigning Pharoah at 14 years of age, although she is in love with another.
I thought this would be a book that I would absolutely have to plough through with determination - not my style at all. But I was enthralled by the end of the first ten pages and while the epic length of the plot line was a little wearing towards the end, it certainly detailed in graphic description how tough life was and how brutal. Lots of stomach turning description at times, but also a gripping, reasonably well paced story that had me immersed til the end.
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