Fans of novelist Pauline Gedge will welcome this first volume of a new Egyptian trilogy, The Lords of the Two Lands. Like Gedge’s previous work, her latest book is also set in ancient Egypt. It is about a family of royal lineage whose fate is to rebel against the foreign lords from the north who have gradually taken control of Egypt, undermined its religious and political systems, and usurped the throne. The Hippopotamus Marsh,/I> is the story of the family’s struggle to match wits with a ruler who is bent on humiliating its members into total submission. Revolt seems the only – but nigh impossible – alternative.

Gedge’s greatest strength is her ability to portray this alien civilization in intimate detail with consistency and grace. The author has immersed herself completely in the history and spirit of the time and place, and the world that she creates is entirely believable. There are no painfully self-conscious efforts to introduce local habits and mores. Brothers and sisters are betrothed in childhood to preserve the bloodline, and wed as naturally and appropriately as the Kings and Queens of England might accede to the throne. In the background, oiled bodies and painted faces go about their daily tasks and pleasures. Beyond them is the Nile in its bounty and the desert with its stifling heat.

If the plot unfolds with a leisurely inevitability and few surprises, the context is colourful enough. But because characters tend to be cardboard figures who make unconvincing conversation and have simplistic inner lives, the tragic events that befall them can be taken in stride. It’s not a novel to shake you to your roots, but it provides a convincing view of an ancient world.