Plain talk

By Mursi Saad El-Din

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British writers who lived in Egypt between 1939 and 1947 could be divided into two categories, the civilian writers or 'writers in mufti' as they were called, and those military people called 'writers in khaki'. I had the good fortune of moving within the circles of these two groups.

Most of the civilian writers such as Terence Tiller, Robin Fedden, P H Newby, Bernard Spencer, John Spiers, Martin Lings, Hillary Waymont and Gwynn Williams were my professors at one time or another during my university years at the English Department of Fuad I University (Re-christened Cairo University after 1952).

As for the 'writers in khaki', I met some of them while working for the Egyptian Gazette and other English-language magazines published in Egypt, and in places like Music for All, the Victory Club, the Anglo- Egyptian Union and the British Institute. This group included people such as John Waller, J S Frazer, Lord Kinross and others.

Thus I was to become a contributor to the two literary magazines produced by the two groups: Salamander, the mouthpiece of the military writers, and Personal Landscape, edited by Lawrence Durrell, Robin Fedden and Bernard Spencer.

We met at the different places I mentioned, but most of all at the Anglo-Egyptian Union and the British Institute. We also met at a number of private parties which gave me a unique opportunity to get closer to them, out of the formal classes at the university or the literary groups at the British Institute.

Being a literary novice myself -- like most young people -- I wrote poetry in English inspired by the springs of knowledge supplied by those great writers. In fact all my generation learnt a great deal from them and came under their influence in a big way. Through them we got to know poets like W B Yeats who was a leader of the Irish literary movement, as well as being introduced to T S Eliot's work which greatly influenced many young poets at the time.

But much as they influenced my generation, those writers were equally influenced by Egypt. When I mention Egypt I think mainly of Cairo and Alexandria, not only because they were the two largest cities where most of the writers and troops were concentrated, but because the writers themselves chose them as living centres for their poetry and prose.

In the case of poetry there were other areas of inspiration, like the Western Desert, but the main part of prose writings had the two cities as their scene, coloured by the atmosphere of World War II raging at a distance. Egypt was neutral at the beginning of the war and for some years after, since it was in the interest of both the British and the Germans to keep it so. The Germans, for instance, never attempted to bomb Cairo and apart from few war drills and people being asked to paint their window panes blue -- which not all of them did -- Cairo enjoyed a normal life. Lights were on, night clubs were welcoming customers and cinemas were catering for all tastes.

Many of the British writers living in Egypt at the time dealt with this aspect of life. Cairo became the center for soldiers on leave and war plans to be drawn. It also saw many great artists giving memorable performances, not only to the troops but to Egyptians as well. Noel Coward came to Cairo, Emylin Williams performed Night Must Fall, the Old Vic charmed audiences, and the Abbey Theatre introduced the Egyptian audiences to the plays of Synge and Lady Gregory.

Apart from using Egypt as the scene for novels, poems and short stories, some of the British writers mentioned above wrote books on the country itself. Robin Fedden, for instance, wrote a book called Egypt and many others produced similar works. Lawrence Durrell wrote a number of poems about Alexandria, while G S Frazer excelled himself with a poem about Cairo. Thus there was a two-way- movement going on all the time, and the interest in Egypt lived with many of these British writers long after they left the country, many of them publishing their works in the 1950s and 60s.