Dr Bill Manley
A lecturer, curator and bestselling author, who has worked as an Egyptologist over three decades.
Biography
Bill Manley is an expert on hieroglyphic texts, best known for devising popular forms of access to learning about pharaonic Egypt.
Bill holds a PhD from University College London (UK). He taught the Ancient Egyptian and Coptic languages for more than thirty years at the Universities of London, Glasgow and Liverpool, and spent five years as Senior Curator for Ancient Egypt at National Museums Scotland. These days he is Co-Director of Egiptología Complutense (a Madrid-based research and teaching charity), Honorary President of Egyptology Scotland, and is working with the survey of a pristine archaeological site beside the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt.
Bill has written about ancient philosophy and culture, early Christian life in Egypt, and the history of Egyptology for scholarly publications and encyclopaedias; and his popular books on pharaonic language and art have been translated into more than twenty languages.
Bill has travelled and worked in Egypt since 1990, and led tours to all parts of the country since 2011. Many sites on Academy Travel’s tours to Egypt have featured in his own research and publications.
Upcoming Tours.
Egypt, November 2025
Books by Bill
The Oldest Book In The World by Bill Manley
"A superb book, in its own way as exciting as any excavation of a tomb. More exciting, perhaps, because it breathes life rather than death."
Stephen Fry
Egyptian Art by Bill Manley
"Discovering ancient art as a child blew my mind and Egyptian art was the greatest to me. It was the first time I really felt art and how beautiful its connection is to life. This book is the perfect way into that story."
Damien Hirst