Passionate Patron: THe Life of Alexander Hardcastle

Alexander Hardcastle's name is little known today, especially in comparison with such figures as Howard Carter and Arthur Evans, but his archaeological work in Sicily and Etruria deserves to be ranked with theirs. Alexandra Richardson's study of his full and in some ways tragic (he was invalided home from the Boer War with shell shock, and ended his life in an insane asylum in Agrigento) life is detailed, sympathetic and readable. She gives vivid descriptions of the Victorian middle-class society in which he grew up, and his dogged work of excavation in Sicily.