Talking Location With author Hannah Fielding – UPPER EGYPT

15th June 2021

#TalkingLocationWith… Hannah Fielding, author of Song of the Nile

How My Egyptian Roots Inspired Me to Write Song of the Nile

I grew up in Egypt, but left my country at the age of twenty-one to follow my wanderlust and travel the world. Then, after I met my husband, I settled in his home country of England. We bought and restored a Georgian house in the verdant countryside of Kent: serene and beautiful, but so far removed from Egypt, and as time went by, I felt nostalgic for my homeland. After having published seven books set in countries to which I had travelled, from Spain to Greece, Kenya to Italy, I decided that it was time for me to write about the country I know better than anywhere else: Egypt is my homeland, a place I have kept in my heart throughout my travels and time abroad.

When I was growing up, my mother told me about the glamour of Egypt in the 1940s, when it was a cosmopolitan place.She would tell me all about the magnificent parties she’d attended at the Palace in her youth, and it made me dream. Other stories excited my imagination too: Egypt was going through a very interesting time in the 40s, with the war on but the revolution yet to unfold, and a lot of trafficking of antiquities, arms and drugs was going on, especially in Upper Egypt and in the desert. That, and the mystery, magic, heat and passion of Egypt’s landscapes which were so vividly etched in my memory, inspired me to write a love story built around those facts. The Nile, of course, is at the heart of the landscapes, and one of the most romantic views is of the traditional felucca sailboats gliding on these timeless waters, and so Song of the Nile seemed the perfect name for my romance novel.

The novel is set just after the Second World War, a time of frivolity and glamour for the aristocracy in Cairo – think polo tournaments and extravagant balls and luxurious boat expeditions on the Nile. Think, too, of women in Egypt beginning to stand strong in a whole new way, to have their own opinions, make their own choices, build careers, be independent, in a country still steeped in patriarchy.

Though it is the 1940s, the ancient history of this land is never far away: the Pyramids, the great tombs and temples, the gods and goddesses, the pharaohs, these are interwoven into the story. Where better to have a date than the Temple of Hathor, goddess of the sky, of women, of fertility and of love?

Throughout the book, I paint a vivid picture of the landscapes of Egypt that have always fascinated me. The timeless waters of the Nile gliding past ancient temples and monuments, like the Temple of Isis on Philae, an island rescued from the watery depths of the river. Those mysterious, mute giants, the Pyramids of Giza, visible for miles around, ruddy and steep, towering majestically in the sky like gigantic ghosts, their shadows lying sharp across the sands. The vast deserts, with mighty rippling dunes and craggy, rugged mountains and those glorious gifts of nature, the oases. The fields worked by the fellahin, country folk, their tiny villages built from mud, their winding ways fringed with palms. The bustling, buzzing city of Cairo, ‘Paris of the Nile’ in those far-off days, a melting pot of cultures, alive with energy and joie de vivre.

A passion for my home country of Egypt – its history, people and culture – is at the heart of Song of the Nile. Of course, the ancient history of this land is particularly fascinating, and ‘Egyptology’ has wide appeal. To this day, explorations continue in Egypt, and while they may not all be as thrilling as the Tutankhamun find, they have so much to teach us. And throughout all, the Nile remains the heart of life in Egypt, a timeless certainty, reassuringly unbothered by progress and conflict and upheaval – my inspiration.

Hannah Fielding

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