BM curator's fan club kickstarts his horror story

The esteemed British Museum curator Irving Finkel has raised enough money on Kickstarter to publish his novel, The Writing in the Stone, which is described as “a horror story set in ancient Assyria”. “This book unveils the world of ancient Mesopotamia in a shocking narrative in which reality and horror intertwine,” says the Kickstarter blurb. Only 243 hardback editions will be produced according to Finkel, the assistant keeper (ancient Mesopotamian), in the BM’s Middle East department. Finkel evidently has a following: £29,119 was raised against a goal of £10,500.