‘Buy a couple of pistols – one for Egypt and one for Britain – and shoot myself through each ear in the Bull Ring?’

“Where are you from?” “Jamaica … My father is Egyptian.” “And what nationality does that make you?” “Parasitologist.” “I say chaps! This man says his nationality is parasitologist!” If you’re born with three mother-countries, as Yasseen was, you look for the Highest Common Factor that unites them, and since both his parents were doctors – … More ‘Buy a couple of pistols – one for Egypt and one for Britain – and shoot myself through each ear in the Bull Ring?’

Noireddin, the Bent Copper and Partial Redemption

One day in early 1977 I went to the cinema in Cairo, to see the one and only screening of Costas Gavras’s magnificent film, “Z”. It had been summarily banned by the President, Anwar Sadat, who must have seen uncomfortable parallels between the story of a Greek politician set up and murdered by hired thugs, … More Noireddin, the Bent Copper and Partial Redemption