My fascination with Byron de Prorok has been ongoing for many years–that’s why I made him the center of The Count of the Sahara. A lot of my readers think of him as a failure and a ne’er-do-well, which is only part of the story.
There was a time when he was an innovative and inventive (sometimes too inventive) new mind in the field. A recent blog post on the (deep breath) Aerial Photographic Archive for Archaeology in the Middle East talks about our boy (and gives my book a shout-out under resources.)
David Kennedy, a researcher from both Oxford and the University of Western Australia, outlines how de Prorok was among the first to make filming his discoveries a “thing”, including aerial and underwater photography. Of course, his personal demons overtook any positive contributions he made to the field.
A number of folks have told me that after reading The Count of the Sahara, they looked up old Byron. Here’s another place to learn more about this mysterious figure.
Of course, you can always read the book and leave a review, too. Just sayin’
