DESPITE her fascination with the Ancient Egyptians, Claire Ollett took the ‘sensible’ route and gained a university place to study English.

But a few years later, when she took a last minute holiday to Egypt with then boyfriend Mark, Claire’s interest in the culture surrounding Tutankhamum, Rameses, Cleopatra and co grew to an obsession and a love.

She eventually went part-time from her job as a bank manager and signed up for a degree in Egyptology at the University of Liverpool, in which she gained a first, before completing a Masters with distinction in December.

Now Claire, who lives in Knuzden and works for HSBC in Blackburn and Accrington, does occasional work as an Egyptologist in schools and museums, while looking for funding to cover the costs of PhD study from the autumn.

She said: “I have been interested since being a kid; seeing Tutankhamun’s mask and hearing how Howard Carter found the tomb. Whenever we had to pick a project at school, I’d do Ancient Egypt. Even my art GCSE work was based on clothes with an Egyptian theme.

“I had toyed with the idea of a degree in Egyptology at 18 but really thought it was just the stuff of fantasy, not something for the real world. So I got a place for English and took a year out with no intention of going to uni. I was going to get a career during that year and got on a trainee scheme with HSBC.

“The big push came when my grandad died. He’d always been my inspiration and one of the last things he said was ‘you have never been happy at the bank’, so I applied on a whim when I wasn’t thinking.”

Since her first trip to Egypt, aged 22, Claire has been back eight times — including four more Nile cruises — and she and Mark, who married in 2006, started going along to Egyptology societies in Manchester.

With nothing like that closer to home, they formed Thebes, the Blackburn Egyptology Society, named after the Ancient name for Luxor and the site of the temples of Karnak and Luxor as well as the valleys of the kings and queens — some of Claire’s favourite sites.

“They are all wonderful in different ways, and then there’s Abu Simbel as it’s so different to everything else,” she said.

“Every time I go there’s something new to see in the carvings, the art and the architecture. The more you learn about sites, and the more you read, you find new things to notice.”

Competition for jobs is fierce among the tight-knit community of Egyptologists and Claire recently missed out on a museum curator’s post in Manchester: “My best friend and about six people I know all went for the job, all with the same person as a reference,” she said.

“There are jobs out there. It’s not easy but it’s what I desperately want to do. I love it and that’s what keeps me going when I’m up at 3am studying and have to get up the next morning for work.

“My career aim is to work as an Egyptology curator in a museum, which I can do with my Masters, or to be a lecturer, which I really need the PhD for.”

She recently put together an exhibition at Blackburn Museum, showcasing the work of fellow East Lancashire Egyptologist John Garstang — who pioneered the photographing of archaeological finds in-situ.

Historically, the field has been dominated by men, but on Claire’s degree course there were 12 women and just one man.

“Only in recent years has it started to change,” Claire said.

“But a lot of PhD students are female and more are coming through — although there are still a lot of men in the main jobs.”

And while men dominated the Ancient Egyptian monarchy, Hatshepsut and Cleopatra aside, Claire says the society was a lot more progressive than many would imagine.

“In general society, they were pretty enlightened with women’s rights; women could own property, divorce and pass property on to their children.”

To find out more about Thebes, email Claire at thebes2011@ yahoo.co.uk