Luxor in the days following the discovery of Tutankhamun's Tomb
Lady Evelyn Herbert in the arms of Howard Carter
The signs were there early on in the historically inaccurate previews
that there would be a tardy and
tarnished account in the 2016
ITV series “ New Tutankhamun”, all
about Lord Carnarvon,
Howard Carter and the discovery of the
Tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922.
There was in the end a messy, muddled four part story with the wrong kind of costumes and digitised sand dunes and a narrative made up of a jingle jangle largely fixed on two
women; one, a Miss Lewis, a member of the Metropolitan Museum Staff and the other, Lord Carnarvon’s daughter, Evelyn Herbert, each chasing the love interest of Howard Carter.
All TV bog-standard drama treatments need a ‘love’ interest to keep the
old romantic formula going that
fictional drama thrives on for mugging an attentive following. History, real life, real lives are not always accommodating. So the writer turns to making it all up or
embellishing the truth .
William Cross, Author of
six books on the Carnarvons comments:
“Such a scenario involving
Lady Evelyn is not
an ingenious plot it is not a new angle on the real story,
it is an assertion that has been made before – by the Tutankhamun authors
Thomas Hoving ( a man who blew the gaff on the whole story, declaring Carnarvon and Carter tomb thieves, who looted the tomb before it's declaration to the world) and H V ( Victor) Winstone, one of Carter's two principal biographers.
It is a fanciful suggestion at best and
only entangles and dilutes the actual real history.
THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OF A
LOVE AFFAIR BETWEEN LADY EVELYN AND HOWARD CARTER.
Besides Carter was homosexually
inclined - as I recorded in 2012 in my book " Lordy! Tutankhamun's Patron As A Young Man" ( and mentioned in an well timed outing highlighted by The
Daily Telegraph Letters Page on 16 October,
2016 ) moreover, medically he was not fit for purpose. A childhood hernia (
that required remedial care) and abdominal surgery at the hands of the great
surgeon Sir Berkeley Monyihan, in 1921-2 left him scarred and damaged internally. Ironically, as a boy Carter had to be bandaged like a mummy to keep his hernia in place. ”
The fictional characters ( bearing the names of
real people from history) in the ITV
series acted out the fictional
scenario. Cross remarks:
" The trouble was some people thought they were seeing the playing out of
history. That is a horrific effect especially so close to the centenary of the discovery.
The series took liberties with history and mocked the historical figures. Julian Fellowes did something similar in Downton Abbey ( using Highclere
Castle, the Herbert family seat and period history as a source ), but at least Fellowes had the integrity
to create FICTIONAL characters for the story lines and only indirectly maligned real people."
In the ITV series the pleasantly watchable 5- foot -6 inch 26- year- old
Amy Wren played the 5 foot-0 inches Lady Evelyn Herbert. The dashing 30-year-old
actor Max Irons played Carter.
Cross draws attention to the fact that " In 1921 the real Lady Evelyn was aged 20, Carter was
aged 45. 'It’s Tommyrot' ( one of
Carter’s favourite phrases), to
insinuate anything beyond a mutual
affection and respect, something close but not intimate that had formed over the many years that
Carter spent in and around the Carnarvon household. Carter’s autistic nature made him awkward in
all matters of relationships with women and men.
Lady Evelyn Herbert loved Lord Carnarvon, the man she called ‘Pugs’, the man she thought
was her real father. " A story hangs there as set out in several
books by William Cross, FSA Scot.
Cross adds ".. the reality makes a surprising twist on all the fickle fiction....
Howard Carter loved his
patron Lord Carnarvon, afterall, they were ‘an
item’."
More details
of the interaction between Carnarvon, Carter and Lady Evelyn Herbert and
the ultimate fate of each of them can be found in a new and
controversial book " Carnarvon, Carter and Tutankhamun Revisited:
The Hidden Truths and Doomed Relationships" by William Cross, FSA Scot.
The above book is available directly from William Cross
or via Amazon.
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