by Louisa Young
He looked sheepish.
‘How long?’ I asked again.
‘Don’t be cross …’
‘I’m not cross …’
‘They looked like they needed the trade …’
‘Who?’
‘I got it in Luxor.’
God, how feelings can flood. They flooded. Inundation of my heart. Harry, how you have dealt with all this, through it all, patient, cool, generous …
If I say it was always Harry, that doesn’t mean it was never Sa’id. It was always Harry. And it was Sa’id – but it is Harry. Look at him.
‘Yes,’ I said.
‘What?’
‘Yes. Just yes.’
‘Yes?’
‘Yes.’
Acknowledgements
My thanks are due as usual to Amira Ghazalla and Charlotte Horton, and quite particularly to David Brooks. And to Isabel Adomakoh Young, Emily Young and Hassan Elaraby. To Louis Adomakoh, Sue Swift, David Flusfeder, Clare Brennan, Nicola Dahrendorf, Al-Saqi Books, Jake Howard, Francesca Brill, Dominic Gill, Juan Carlos Gumucio, Caroline Gascoigne, Tom Whyte, Annabel Arden, Candida Blaker, David Jenkins, Anthony Sattin. To Nick and Sian Lezard, and to Nick Lezard’s mum. To Abu Nagarr, Anwar and Captain Ziko. To Derek Johns, Linda Shaughnessy and the staff of A. P. Watt; my editor Rebecca Lloyd, Philip Gwyn Jones, Karen Duffy, Jon Butler, Humphrey Serjeantson, Becky Glibbery and the staff at Flamingo. To Alastair Niven and Catriona Ferguson at the British Council. To all the writers who knowingly or unknowingly have helped me not only with this book but with Baby Love and Desiring Cairo: Max Rodenbeck, Edward Said, Diane Singerman, Wendy Buonaventura, Naguib Mahfouz, Ahdaf Soueif, Leslie Blanche, Albert Hourani, Robert Irwin, Deborah Manley, Geraldine Brooks, Andre Aciman, Lucinda Jarrett, Karin van Nieuwkerk, Margot Badran; and the dead ones: Flaubert, Herodotus, E. Wallis Budge, A. W. Kinglake, the Lady Travellers, the classical poets. Umm Kalthoum (RIP) and her songwriters and musicians; Ibrahim Nagui. Merle Haggard, Randy Travis and one of the Judds but I can’t remember which. To my parents, my brother and my sisters. And to all the Sa’ids: Boris Romanos, Julio Segovia, Karaja da Cunha Jnr., Zed Zawada, Burt Caesar, Luis Angel Lopez Riou, Roberto Astori, Lola Omole, Younus, Ali, Daniel, Nathaniel, and now I come to think of it half the people on the list above anyway.
Louisa Young, 2000
About the Author
Louisa Young was born in London and read history at Trinity College, Cambridge. She lives in London with her daughter, with whom she co-wrote the best-selling Lionboy trilogy, and is the author of eleven previous books including the bestselling novel My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You, which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and the Wellcome Book Prize, was a Richard and Judy Book Club choice, and the first ever winner of the Galaxy Audiobook of the Year.
Also by Louisa Young
FICTION
Baby Love
Desiring Cairo
My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You
The Heroes’ Welcome
NON-FICTION
A Great Task of Happiness: The Life of Kathleen Scott
The Book of the Heart
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