Joyce Tyldesley

Joyce Tyldesley's new book is Nefertiti's Face: The Creation of an Icon. From her Q&A with Deborah Kalb:

Q: Why did you decide to focus on the famous bust of Nefertiti in your new book?

A: As I was growing up there was a replica Nefertiti bust in my local museum, and this fascinated me. I thought that it was the “real” Nefertiti bust (I thought that everything in the museum was real!) and it made me wonder about the queen herself. Who was she? Where and when did she live?

As I grew older, and started to study Egypt’s queens in detail, I realised that Nefertiti is an unusual case. We are very familiar with her face, as created by one particular sculptor, but we don’t really know a great deal about her as a person. Much of what has been written about her is based on assumptions, not facts.

It became clear that her bust has had a huge effect on our perception of not just Nefertiti’s history, but of her character as well. I wanted to investigate the influence that the bust has had on our thinking about Nefertiti, her family and her era.

Q: How did you research this book, and did you learn anything that especially intrigued you?

A: I started by looking at the bust itself, and then by examining......[read on]

--Marshal Zeringue