Barbara Toy followed the Mediterranean coastline of North Africa, travelling through what was then French Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, to Cyprus, then down through Lebanon, Syria and then through Jordan to Iraq. While in Iraq she visited several archaeological sites, including in May 1951 Sir Max Mallowan's excavations at Nimrud where his wife Agatha Christie was helping with processing the finds. The work on the site had just finished, and the finds for that season included the stele of King Assur-nasir-pal II. Her journey home is not described in the book, although in her second book "A Fool in the
Timeline of the Assyrian Empire Babylonia after a year of warfare by Sin-shar-ishkun (622–612 BC)—who was then himself faced with constant violent rebellion in the Assyrian homeland. This situation led to wholescale revolution in Babylonia, and during the reign of Sin-shar-ishkun many Assyrian colonies to the west, east and north similarly took advantage and ceased to pay tribute to Assyria, most significantly the Medes, Persians, Scythians, Cimmerians, Babylonians, Chaldeans and Arameans. In 615 BC, Cyaxares attacked the Assyrian Empire and his forces defeated the Assyrians at Arrapha. The next year, the Medes decisively defeated the Assyrians at the devastating battle of Assur. This assault greatly