A journalist's biography of Sir Austen Henry Layard, traveller, adventurer, antiquarian, archaeologist, politician, ambassador, art historian, failed lawyer. He never made it to Sri Lanka.

The first detailed work I've ever read about Assyrian archaeology, so fresh and so interesting. ( )

A fascinating look at an unjustly forgotten figure; Henry Peter Layard, the re-discoverer of Assyria.

A typical 19th Century English amateur and explorer, Layard got curious about the whereabouts of the great lost empire of Assyria. When he finally started digging, it only took him 20 minutes of excavation to find a wall of a Assyrian city. Layard went on to find several treasure troves of Assyria, including the winged bulls now in England and the Royal Library of Assyria, which proved to be the key to finally cracking the Assyrian language.

Why forgotten? Layard went on to a long and successful career in the Foreign Office, where his knowledge of Oriental cultures proved invaluable to British interests in the Middle East. By the time Layard died, his famous discoveries were long behind him, and other interests had caught the public attention.

For fans of 19th Century history, or students of archeology, this is highly recommended. ( )