Francis King

Cosmopolis

Alexandria: City of Memory

By

Yale University Press 348pp £25 order from our bookshop

IT IS APT that this political, social and literary history of Alexandria during the first half of the last century begins with Lawrence Durrell. He was never truly happy there during his wartime sojourn; but in describing Alexandria as ‘princess and whore. The royal city and the anus mundi,’ he created an impression of the place that many of those who have never visited it have been seduced by his art into accepting as the reality.

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