Cambridgewordfest previews at Fitzwilliam Museum

The ancient Egyptian story of the Doomed Prince is well known to Egyptologists. It records the adventures of a young man fated to die in one of three ways: by the snake, the dog or the crocodile.

The story is recorded on a piece of papyrus, now in the collection of the British Museum and, thanks to their generosity, soon to be on view at the Fitzwilliam Museum. However, the ending is lost: the papyrus is broken off at a crucial point when the hero, who has already been saved from the snake, is being pursued by a dog and has come face to face with a crocodile. So what happened to the young prince?

Members of the public are being given the opportunity to devise a suitable ending for the tale, or else to write a fairytale of their own, and win prizes through a competition being organized by the Fitzwilliam Museum and Cambridgeshire County Council Literature Development.

The competition will be launched today, April 20, at 6.30pm as a preview event for the Cambridgewordfest, with a public performance at the Fitzwilliam Museum by Adrian Mitchell, well known as a poet, dramatist and storyteller. Tickets, priced £5, are available from www.adctheatre.com, telephone 01223 300085. The competition closes on September 15 and is open to people aged 14 and over who live, work or study in East Anglia.

Cambridgewordfest takes place between April 21 and 23, with writers and personalities such as Richard E. Grant, Alain de Botton and Kate Adie giving talks in venues including the ADC Theatre, from whom tickets are available.