This is how I read the book: Paul Caldwell, “bastard” son of Barnabus Davies, grows up in an impoverished Australian home, studies Egyptology at the local library, enlists for a tour of Egypt to avoid going to jail, and blackmails Captain Hugo Marlowe after catching him "buggering" a man. ...

<t>Jnoir,<br/> <br/> The universality of death is a tough one to contemplate. I’m not afraid of death in the abstract but if I think it might happen to me anytime soon, I’m terrified. I’ve been an atheist pretty much all my life, so I never experienced the painful loss of faith that you describe. My...