Touching the hem of a lost world

First and most importantly, Hugh Thomson is a good thing. It takes a rare combination of scholarly focus and Boys’ Own derring-do to write books about adventuring in Peru (this is his third) which consistently rise above the level of backpackers’ companions, and convey not only Thomson’s great knowledge of the ancient civilisations of the Andes, but also the thrill of the chase for such knowledge. To a lay audience, academic archeologists are often dreadful communicators either of the excitement of discovery or of the human stories of the discoverers.

Indeed to the general public they regularly fail to communicate even the meaning of their discoveries. That we have recently come to understand that the history of civilisation in Ancient Peru goes back much, much further than had been thought (thousands of years before the Incas) is well-conveyed here. I must admit I had previously missed the news. Thomson brings it alive.