Lordy! Tutankhamun's Patron As A Young Man by William Cross, FSA Scot With an Introduction by Alfred Jones, Ph.D of Texas A New Book on Lord Carnarvon of Highclere and Tutankhamun Fame
Lordy! Published 1 September 2012 ( ISBN 978 1905914-05-0) is a study of Lord Carnarvon's childhood and early adulthood, based on his father's diaries in the British Library. The diaries were sold by the Herbert family at Sotheby's in the 1970s.
NEWPORT, UK, September 25, 2012
The book deals with George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon's early life before marriage to Almina Wombwell, the Rothschild heiress - and covers the family pedigrees on his father and mother's sides and in some depth.As George ( when he was Lord Porchester ) emerges in the plot there's full coverage of his birth, childhood, schooling, youth and early manhood. There is much new and enhanced material- not published elsewhere- on the threads and influences that almost certainly shaped his development years and the personality he was or became.
This book contains an important Epilogue which adds to Cross's earlier book The Life and Secrets of Almina Carnarvon, published in 2011. Cross's challenges further the key aspects of the narrative/timeline relating to the Earl's Egyptian days ( as "Lordy!") based on Almina's personal testimony, and truths suppressed for nine decades.
Most sensational of all in Lordy! Cross raises the question of whether Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter enjoyed something more than just a professional, working relationship? Based on information from inside the Herbert-Carnarvon family - Cross asks whether they were gay lovers?
Cross hones in on Lord Carnarvon's death after the famed mosquito bite in 1923. New evidence unearthed indicates that Almina, Carnarvon's wife (and widow) had no doubt about what caused the Earl's death. It was not a mosquito bite or the curse of the Pharaohs. The death of the 5th Earl was from a terminal illness that he was already suffering from and which had reached it's advanced stages in the time before Carnarvon's last trip to Egypt. On this count alone history has been papered over.
Cross also credits an American adventurer (and former US Senator) named Jeremiah Lynch as Carnarvon's real inspiration to go forth in exploring the archaeological sites of Egypt towards an ultimate goal of digging in the Valley of the Kings. Lynch was a native of Massachusetts; he later made his name in San Francisco, as a businessman and Democratic Senator. Lynch was also a great traveller in Egypt and Author of Egyptian Sketches (1889). Lord Carnarvon met him in San Francisco's Bohemian Club in 1903 and enthralled him with talk of mummies and that there was almost certainly still one final great treasure to be dug out of the sands of Egypt. Lynch died in 1917 and his importance in the Tutankhamun story has been overlooked.
The book is released to mark the 90th anniversary of the discovery of the tomb of the boy Pharaoh Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings, Egypt on 4 November 1922..
90 years on the record is finally settled ending as Cross sees it, the whole episode's wild distortions and gimmicky distractions - including ancient curses- unexplained power cuts and dead dogs- that have completely falsified and distorted an important piece of archaeological and human history. Further Enquiries Please Contact williecross@aol.com
Book Midden Publishing email is bookmidden@yahoo.co.uk