The Field of Reeds

Book Synopsis

‘The Field of Reeds’ is a monumental tale, which tells the story of the ‘Old Luxor Hotel’ in Upper Egypt, one that stands on the site of its once ancient capital Thebes; a hotel, created by the omnipresent travel and tour company Thomas Cook & Son. From the very moment of its opening in the December of 1877, it has shaped the lives of all who have ever stayed in its rooms and whose walls have absorbed the historic events of the Pharaonic civilisation on which it stands. This is a book which speaks only of truth. All of its characters were real people, who actually lived the events described and who even spoke the very same words written in its pages. It is not a work of fiction. It is one based in fact. It is a book which means all things to all readers.

If your book of choice is an adventure that spans both time and space - this is the book you must read. It begins in the present with a ghostly experience in this rundown and dilapidated Victorian hotel; one which tells of a divine encounter a century and half earlier in the India of the British Empire, between a young girl and Wadjet, the mystical snake of a native guru. It sets her a riddle which sends her half way across the world, to the ‘Old Luxor Hotel’, to a land where Gods still walk amongst mortals. Once there she is cured of the terrible disease that would have ended her life; saved by the fearsome and all-powerful cobra headed Goddess Meretseger; whose voice can deliver both mercy or vengeance; and who has the ability to warp time itself. In return for her salvation she is sworn to serve the ‘one who loves silence’ and by doing so threatens to destroy her very soul and have it thrown to the ‘Great Devourer’, the Goddess Ammit; a fate where only everlasting nothingness awaits - the ultimate perception of hell.

For those readers interested in ancient history and archaeology, it is a book for you. It will reveal the true story of a three thousand years old Papyrus, that contained mystical spells, ones which the ancient Egyptians believed would deliver a person’s soul into everlasting life; and how a maverick Egyptologist smuggled it out of this very hotel, despite being guarded by soldiers of the Egyptian Antiquities Service; before it was sent to England where it can still be seen to this day in the British Museum. You will read of a Hebrew text wrenched from the grasp of the hotel’s chaplain inside an ancient tomb; a gospel the apostle Matthew of Galilee had written himself; but now entombed because it threatened the very survival of Christianity itself. And of a meeting in the hotel’s garden, between a playboy English Lord and a disgraced Archaeologist; who after years of fruitless digging would find the tomb of a long-forgotten Pharaoh; and of the curse created by the Goddess Meretseger, which prophesized that “Death shall come on swift wings to him who disturbs the peace of the King.” Out of this curse was born the legend of Tutankhamun.

If you expect to read a love story or one that ends happily, then you shall; for it also tells of a beautiful girl with the blackest of hair and the bluest of eyes; she refuses to open her heart to the hotel’s talented and caring young doctor who has given her his own, and who in the end sacrifices his life in the pursuit of her love; it speaks of her grief at coming to terms with his loss; and how she overcame it through the power of the ancient Egyptian belief, where death is but only the beginning; and for those who have faith and goodness in their hearts, they too will find a new life with those they love; a life that will last for all eternity, amongst the ‘Field of Reeds’, one which is their very own vision of paradise. It is a book for everyone.