Sir Alan Henderson Gardiner had been one of the best egyptologists-analytics in his generation, probably the greatest British one, being a disciple of the famous German egyptologist Kurt Heinrich Sethe in Berlin.
His important publications include a 1959 book on his study of "The Royal Canon of Turin" and his seminal 1961 work Egypt of the Pharaohs, which covered all aspects of Egyptian chronology and history at the time of publication, three volumes "Egyptian Onomastica", important editions of papyri manuscripts, etc.

Two biggest contributions to ancient Egyptian philology by Gardiner are his famous Egyptian Grammar and its correlated list of all the Middle Egyptian hieroglyphs in Gardiner's Sign List. Publishing Egyptian Grammar produced one of the few available hieroglyphic printing fonts.

In 1915 Gardiner was also able to crack the so-called Proto-Sinaitic writing system by deciphering the "B'alat inscriptions".

This short authobiography presents Gardiner's personal way and his professional development as a scholar from his own point of view. The book was finished around a year before his death and is his legacy to the future explorers.