Generations of writers have been inspired by the multi-cultural, outward-looking city of Alexandria. In recent history, the most famous literary work about Alexandria by a non-Egyptian author is Lawrence Durrell’s “Justine, the first volume of his classic “Alexandria Quarter.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of this book, the British Council and the Alexandria and Mediterranean Research Center are co-hosting a program of events about Durrell, the man, and Alexandria’s continuing influence on writers today. The event is sponsored by the British Egyptian Society.
Michael Haag, author of “Alexandria: City of Memory and an upcoming biography of Lawrence Durrell, will talk about Durrell’s journey to Alexandria, with a biographical and literary focus on how world events led him to the city, how he developed his ideas and why he saw Alexandria as the right setting for his work.
Poet Peter Porter, editor of a recent volume of Durrell’s poetry, will discuss Durrell’s Mediterranean poetry and the influence it had on his later prose writings. Penelope Durrell Hope, his daughter who fled to Alexandria from Greece with her parents, will share family photographs and speak about her father.
The event will also feature readings by Alexandrian writers Ibrahim Abdel Meguid, Harry Tzalas and Edwar El-Kharrat, adding an authentically Egyptian vision of Alexandria to Durrell’s presentation of the city. Abdel Meguid’s “No One Sleeps in Alexandria depicts the intertwined lives of an assortment of Egyptians and explores how the World War II came crashing down on their lives. Tzalas’s short stories in “Farewell to Alexandria take us back to the same era as Durrell and Abdel Meguid, capturing the essence of the city at that time and in some ways foretelling the fundamental changes and exodus that was to come later. The autobiographical works of Edwar El Kharrat, “City of Saffron and “Girls of Alexandria explore his childhood and adolescence in the Alexandria of the 1930s and 1940s.
A walking tour of the city has been specially created for participants in this celebration featuring the key places from the literary works of Durrell and others. These locations will also be recorded in a printed map of literary Alexandria.
To mark this event, Dr Mohamed Awad, leading architect and Alexandrian, will launch a new campaign to save the Villa Ambron – not just as the place where Durrell wrote some of his major works, but also the home of influential Egyptian artists Effat Nagui and Saad El Khadim – with a roundtable discussion on the issues surrounding the preservation of heritage sites in times of urban development. Dr Awad will be joined by the writers Gamal El Ghitani, Osama Anwar Okasha, Ibrahim Abdel Meguid and Alaa El Aswany.
During the event, books by Lawrence Durrell and all the speakers will be available for purchase from the Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s bookstore. The celebration will take place on Nov. 29 and 30 at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
For more information about the program, please visit the Bibliotheca’s events pages at www.bibalex.org or contact Amani Madwar at [email protected].
