Like so many adventures, the catalyst for a reaction is usually stimulated by an event. In our main protagonist’s case, the event was simply finding an old leather-bound Cook’s Tourists’ Handbook that had been tucked away in a storage box under the stairs in the Drake family home in Shrewsbury.
Among other part-time jobs, Thomas Cook started working as a Baptist Preacher and saw the ill effects of drunkenness at a very early age. Associating alcohol abuse as one of the root causes of many of the social problems in the Victorian era, Cook, with his preaching, actively supported the temperance movement. This activity, along with his beliefs, led him to become a travel organizer, arranging for large groups to travel to meetings across the country by train and providing additional food and entertainment.
Over time these excursions moved further afield and attracted a broader clientele, first to Scotland in 1845 and later to Europe and America. However, Egypt and the Middle East were the most sacred of his destinations, as it had always been his desire to spend time in the biblical lands, starting such lavish tours in the 1880s.
Thomas Cook’s handbook was by no means the simple sort of guide that one might pick up today, but almost an encyclopedia. The comprehensive publication provided a detailed history and description of all the sites, temples, and other wonders one would see during the tour, complete with photographs, plans, and sketches, almost enticing those that could afford it to come and explore these exotic locations for themselves.
In Siptah’s Legacy, Drake’s Great Aunt had been one of the fortunate few to make such a trip, by ship in 1902. During what would have been an excursion lasting two or three months, she must have purchased the old papyrus scroll off some street vendor and, for safety’s sake, tucked it away in the smooth red leather binding of her trusty Cook’s travel guide. That mystical parchment ultimately remained secreted away for almost a further eight decades before its unexpected discovery.
What followed next would be even more fantastical, as you’ll read in KV-66: Siptah’s Legacy!