An excellent little text book. This series of books are generally well written and by experts in the field. This particular volume covers the development of writing from the very beginning of the very first script, an excellent coverage of the subject as we presently understand it. One feature of this book that was excellent is the way Andrew Robinson explains how to read Egyptian hieroglyphs. It covers writing a famous pharaohs name better than any other text dedicated to writing hieroglyphs than I’ve ever seen before. Brilliant. A highly recommended read of a very esoteric subject. Especially for someone who knows very little about philology, like me.