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
David Oates (archaeologist) he took part in the excavations led by David Talbot Rice of the Great Palace of Constantinople in Istanbul, Turkey. In 1954, he was sent to Iraq by the British Academy to review the work of Sir Aurel Stein. This work led to the publication of a monograph, "Studies in the Ancient History of Northern Iraq", in 1968. From 1955 to 1962, he worked on Max Mallowan's excavation of Nimrud; Oates was director of the excavation from 1958. In addition to his fellowship at Trinity College, he was also a lecturer in archaeology at the University of Cambridge from 1957