Alexandria

The author, who has lived in Alexandria, and has known Lawrence Durrell and others who lived there during its cosmopolitan heyday, retraces their footsteps to present an account of the places and the people of this most remarkable of cities. In the decades before Nasser's seizure of power and the Suez crisis, Alexandria was a magnet for the wealthy, the gifted and the glamorous from around the world. The whole city looked seaward, its port, one of the busiest in the Mediterranean, its spirit ecumenical, its life luxuriant and sensual. Alexandria was barely an Egyptian city, and the Egyptians who live there now inhabit the gently crumbling remains of a foreign world, whose palatial villas, Venetian apartments, art-nouveau cafes, Moorish hotels and cinemas conceived in 1930s deco, are haunted by a departed cast. Using interviews, diaries, letters and photographs, this work recreates the city of Durrell, of Cavafy - his "Alexandrian muse" - of E.M. Forster and of the models for Durrell's creations: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive and Clea.