Paul Nicholas Sussman (11 July 1966 in

Beaconsfield Beaconsfield ( ) is a market town and civil parish within the unitary authority of Buckinghamshire, England, west-northwest of central London and south-southeast of Aylesbury. Three other towns are within : Gerrards Cross, Amersham and High W ...

– 31 May 2012) was a best-selling English

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

. His novels were described by ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' as "the intelligent reader's answer to ''

The Da Vinci Code ''The Da Vinci Code'' is a 2003 mystery thriller novel by Dan Brown. It is Brown's second novel to include the character Robert Langdon: the first was his 2000 novel ''Angels & Demons''. ''The Da Vinci Code'' follows symbologist Robert Langdon ...

''".

Biography

Paul Sussman was the only son of Stanley, a sales manager for a textile manufacturer, and Sue, an actress-turned-psychoanalyst. After a few years in Hampstead the family moved to Northwood in north-west London. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and

St. John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corporation established by a charter dated 9 April 1511. The ...

, where he won a Joseph Larmor Award and a boxing

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and was lead singer in a college band, Dr and the Glasscocks. His novels have been translated into 33 languages Link text
/ref> and are set mainly in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

, where he worked for many years as a field

, notably with the

Amarna Royal Tombs Project The Amarna Royal Tombs Project (ARTP) is an archaeological expedition devoted to the Amarna Period. It was established in 1998 to ascertain on the ground and in the ancient records the fate of the missing Amarna royal dead, which were transferred ...

in the

Valley of the Kings The Valley of the Kings ( ar, وادي الملوك ; Late Coptic: ), also known as the Valley of the Gates of the Kings ( ar, وادي أبوا الملوك ), is a valley in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th ...

. Among other finds, at Tomb

KV56 Tomb KV56, also known as the Gold Tomb, is a tomb located in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, Egypt. It was discovered by Edward R. Ayrton in January 1908 and contained what is thought to be the intact burial of a royal child from the late Nin ...

, in the Valley of the Kings, he unearthed the first items of pharaonic jewellery to have been excavated in the Valley since the discovery of

Tutankhamun Tutankhamun (, egy, twt-ꜥnḫ-jmn), Egyptological pronunciation Tutankhamen () (), sometimes referred to as King Tut, was an Egyptian pharaoh who was the last of his royal family to rule during the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty (ruled ...

in 1922. As a journalist, he was a long-time contributor to ''

The Big Issue ''The Big Issue'' is a street newspaper founded by John Bird and Gordon Roddick in September 1991 and published in four continents. ''The Big Issue'' is one of the UK's leading social businesses and exists to offer homeless people, or indivi ...

'', where he won a

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Columnist of the Year Award for his satirical "In The News" column. He also wrote for, among others, ''

'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', ''

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'', ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'', ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

'', ''

Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Food and drink * Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo" History * Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953 Hotels and resorts * Cosmopoli ...

'' and ''

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''.

Death

On 31 May 2012, Sussman died suddenly after suffering a ruptured

aneurysm An aneurysm is an outward bulging, likened to a bubble or balloon, caused by a localized, abnormal, weak spot on a blood vessel wall. Aneurysms may be a result of a hereditary condition or an acquired disease. Aneurysms can also be a nidus (s ...

. He was survived by his wife and two sons.

Books

Fiction

* ''The Lost Army of Cambyses'' (2002) * ''The Last Secret of the Temple'' (2005) * ''The Hidden Oasis'' (2009) * ''The Labyrinth of Osiris'' (June 2012) * '' The Final Testimony of Raphael Ignatius Phoenix '' (2014)

Non-fiction

* ''The Ultimate Encyclopaedia of the Movies'' (1994) (contributor) * ''Death by Spaghetti...: Bizarre, Baffling and Bonkers True: Stories from In The News'' (1996)

References

External links

Paul Sussman official website

Paul Sussman
at ''Fantastic Fiction'' * Nicholas Reeves
Re-excavating ‘The Gold Tomb’
Text of a lecture delivered at the day school "Valley of the Kings: The Amarna Royal Tombs Project 1998-2001", 29 September 2001, at the UCL Bloomsbury Theatre, London. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sussman, Paul Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge English archaeologists 20th-century English male writers 21st-century English male writers English crime fiction writers English Egyptologists English male journalists People educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood People from Beaconsfield 1966 births 2012 deaths