An Egyptian Journal

Perhaps I set my expectations too high in Sir William Golding, and therefore I found this a less than fulfilling read. I parked it mid book, and read a couple of other books before picking it up again, which for me is not a good sign - but not as bad as not picking it up again.

Golding set off to Egypt with his wife and a plan - to write a fantastic book about his travels in Egypt. He even pre-wrote some wonderful prose for some places - like Kom Ombo. This it seemed was a bad omen - as he didn't come close to reaching Kom Ombo, and his travel plans were thwarted, mainly by the speed of his travel by boat.

Unfortunately the book he planned to write did not pan out, and annoyingly, he seemed to lament it the whole time, often commenting in the text ‘What will I be able to write about in my book?' and similar, every time something doesn't work out. This reaches a crescendo at the end of the book with some self pity:
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So it was back to the hotel again and an attempt on my part to pull things together. We had done most of the things we had set out to do, but really very inadequately. This was, I now saw, inherent in our situation. I had resisted the realisation for months but now had to accept that whatever I wrote would not be about Egypt, it would be about me...

Notwithstanding this, there were interesting parts within the book. Efforts to move outside the normal tourist route paid dividends in places like the (architect) Hassan Fathy's New Gourna - a town built by the Government (using innovative and low cost mud brick construction) in order to re-home the Gournawis people. The Gournawis were known as grave robbers, their houses built in the valleys of the West Bank, rumoured to be over the ancient Royal tombs, where they slowly extract relics, as well as producing replicas to sell on the tourist market. Golding visits the Gourna Head Man, as well as the town they never occupied, for which they give their reasons - but the suspicion is that they don't want to move off the tombs they are slowly robbing!

As well there is his trip by hired boat up the Nile with his hired crew. The relationships within the crew (their social standing in society setting this framework), and the interactions each had with Golding and his wife, and Golding frustration at not being in command are all interesting reading.

Hard to give an overall gauge, but for me this was 3 stars.