Andrew Robinson

A thrilling biography of the impoverished, arrogant and brilliant child of the French Revolution who made the vital breakthrough in deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs. Robinson charts Champollion’s dramatic life and achievements: by turns a teenage professor, a supporter of Napoleon, an exile, a fanatical decipherer and a curator at the Louvre, he lived life to the full but drove himself into an early grave. Chaired by Daisy Leitch.