Cast of characters

Family

Agnes ‘Mother Rat’ Warner, Lady Warner, née Blyth (1886–1955), daughter of Henry Blyth, partner in Gilbey’s & Son

Harold ‘Father Badger’ Henderson (1901–72), naval attaché, Cairo, RN captain

Mungo Henderson (1935–2018), their son, stockbroker

Doris Smith, Lady Warner’s companion

Elizabeth (‘Betts’ or Betsy) Warner (1905–96), Mrs Harold Henderson, Esmond’s sister, mother of Mungo

Emilia ‘Ilia’ Terzulli (1922–2008); Mrs Esmond Warner from 1944, daughter of Luigi Terzulli (1895–1931) and Maria Filippa Pansini Terzulli (d. Chicago 1956); youngest sister of Annunziata, Purissima and Beatrice (all born Chicago, returned to Bari 1921, died USA).

Esmond Warner (EPW) (1907–82), lieutenant-colonel, Royal Fusiliers (London Branch), 8th Army; in Italy, in charge of Intelligence for No.3 Section; married Ilia Warner 1944; bookseller in Cairo, Brussels, Cambridge

Laura Warner (b.1950), Laura Gascoigne, art critic and writer, daughter of Esmond and Ilia, sister of Marina

Marina Warner (MW) (b.1946), writer and teacher, daughter of Esmond and Ilia, sister of Laura

Sir Pelham ‘Plum’ Warner (1873–1963), the ‘Grand Old Man’ of British cricket. Born Port of Spain, Trinidad, father Charles Pelham, Attorney General, mother Rosa Cadiz. Played in West Indies team (his brother Aucher captain), then in the England team, which he captained for ten Test matches; in 1904, brought back the Ashes, same year married Agnes Blyth (qv); founded the Cricketer 1921 and edited it till 1963; manager of the England team 1932–3 during notorious Bodyline tour; president of the MCC 1950. The Warner Stand at Lord’s is named after him. His ashes were scattered on the pitch.

Close to family

Adriana Barakat (Nanny 3)

Ahmed, the bawab, Soliman House, Sharia el Gezira

Sylvester Browne, OP, joined Dominican order in 1950; anthropologist, Ilia’s confessor

Ivar ‘Burglar’ Bryce (1906–85), said to be a principal model for James Bond, restored family seat of Moyns Park, Essex

Eulalie Buckmaster (1901–?) (Marina’s godmother), daughter of Olympian polo player and Master of Foxhounds Walter Buckmaster; sister of Beryl, a keen huntswoman; chatelaine of Moreton Manor, Warwickshire

Penelope Chetwode (1910–86), married John Betjeman in 1933; keen horsewoman and author of travel writings, sister of Roger Chetwode (1906–1940), who drove across Europe to Albania with Esmond, Long Vacation, 1927

Hildegarde (Loretta Sell) (1906–2005), cabaret artiste and singer

Basil Lubbock (1876–1944), boat designer, yachtsman and marine historian; married Dorothy Warner 1912 (Aunt Dot, d.1944)

Sadika Miligui (1922–), married Christopher Tancred in 1944

Frank Pakenham (1905–2001), later Lord Longford, politician and prisoner reformer; Marina’s godfather

Elizabeth Pakenham, née Harman (1906–2002), later writes as Elizabeth Longford

F.E. Prestridge, Esmond’s batman

Violet Trefusis, née Keppel (1894–1972) (Marina’s godmother), writer in English and French; lover of Vita Sackville-West as pictured in Nigel Nicolson’s memoir of his parents, Portrait of a Marriage; lived and died in Bellosguardo, Florence

Lady Joan Villiers (1911–2010), Mrs David Colville, sister of ‘Grandy’, Earl of Jersey

Mohammed and Abdel, staff in the flat

Nanny 1

Nanny 2

C.M. Wells (1871–1963), Esmond’s housemaster at Eton; cricketer, rugby player, classics scholar, and dabbler in the stock market

The Firm (W.H. Smith’s)

Sir Michael Hornby (1899–1987), Esmond’s friend and boss; vice-chairman; 1928 married Nicolette Ward (1907–88), their son Simon Hornby (1934–2010) succeeded him as chairman. Other board members: Billy Smith, 3rd Viscount Hambledon (1903–1948); his brother David Smith, Dick Troughton, Arthur Acland.

Ben Mendelssohn, Esmond’s deputy in the bookshop, and Maisie, his wife

Among those working for W.H. Smith’s Cairo House: Ahdam Mohamed Alim, Ziza Botton, Pauline George, G. Nahas, Nasrallah, and Labiba Zaki.

More dramatis personae (italics = imaginary personae)

H. Iranian diplomat and politician; innamorato Sadika Tancred (qv)

Muhammad Ali (1769–1849), Ottoman governor of Egypt 1805–48

Jamie Chantry, author of Stash, a thriller

Fausta Cialente (1898–1994), Italian novelist, left Trieste for Cairo, author of Cortile a Cleopatra (1936) and Ballata Levantina (1961) and short story writer; broadcaster on Radio Cairo during the war; died in Eastbourne, England

Georges Dimitrino, member of Art et Liberté movement; poet and bellelettriste

Queen Farida (1921–88), married Faruq in 1938

King Faruq (1920–65), ruler of Egypt 1936–52

Princess Fawzia (1921–2013), Faruq’s eldest sister, first wife of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi of Iran; Princess Faiza (1923–94), Faruq’s second sister; Princess Faika (1926–83), Faruq’s third sister; Princess Fathia (1930–50), Faruq’s youngest sister

Nicola Filotesio (1480/9–1547/59), known as Cola dell’Amatrice; painter in Le Marche; Vasari deemed him provincial, but paid tribute to his wife’s heroism

Sir Robin Furness (1883–1954), deputy director-general of Egyptian State Broadcasting and deputy chief censor in Egypt; later professor at Fuad I University, then Oriental Secretary to the High Commissioner; after the War director British Council in Egypt; married Joy; daughter Mary born in 1946

Sir Robert Greg (1876–1953), British commissioner for the Egyptian Debt 1930–40

Major Chetwode (‘Chatty’) Hilton-Green (1895–1963), fellow officer of Esmond, keen horseman

Khedive Ismail or Ismail Pasha (1830–95), ruler of Egypt 1863–79

Sir Miles Lampson, later Baron Killearn (1880–1964), High Commissioner to Egypt and the Sudan, 1934–36, then UK Ambassador till 1946

Mary Magdalene, Saint, died?c. 70 CE in South of France

Sir Charles Augustus Murray (1806–95), diplomat; author of rightly forgotten works, The Prairie-Bird (1844), and Hassan or The Child of the Pyramid. An Egyptian Tale (1901)

Claudia Roden (1936–), born in Cairo, writer and specialist on Middle Eastern cuisine; author of A New Book of Middle Eastern Food (1968) and many other cookbooks

Sir Thomas Russell Pasha (1879–1954), chief of police, Cairo 1917–46

Edward Said (1935–2003), professor of comparative literature at Columbia University, author of Out of Place (1999) and many influential (and polemical) cultural studies

Anna Sosenko (1909–2000), American songwriter and manager of Hildegarde (qv)

Ahmed Seddiqi Pasha, owner of Tara, a pleasant retreat

Sir Baldwin Wake Walker (1802–76), surveyor of the Royal Navy 1848–61; captain of Ottoman fleet

Sir David Wilkie, RA (1785–1841), British genre painter and portraitist; travelled to Cairo, Syria et al. for his health; died in Malta

Beryl Wynne, horsewoman, married to headmaster of ‘the Eton of Egypt’