In the British Museum an exhibition has this week been thrown open to the public of a collection of marbles made in Asia Minor by the celebrated classic traveller Charles Fellows.’ So announced the Illustrated London News in 1843.

150 years ago, the Marbles caused a considerable stir, and Charles Fellows’s fame seemed assured. Yet how many people today know of either? Who knows how, when or why these unique Graeco-Persian sculptures of the 5th century bc were acquired for the nation?

For the first time the incredible story is told in full. We journey with Fellows on his two expeditions to Xanthus, and relive the excitement of his discoveries. Xanthus is at once a thrilling historical study and an appealingly eccentric travel guide to western Turkey.