Endnotes...

“Do you remember? How quickly the memories are slipping away. What do you want? To chant? Or just call out? To whom? For what? There’s a voice speaking inside of you. Do you hear? Do you see? But where? There’s nothing. Nothing. Darkness and more darkness. A gentle motion’s pushing with the regularity of the ticking of a clock. The heart is flowing with it. There’s a whisper accompanying it. The gate of the garden. Isn’t that so? It’s moving in a fluid, rippling way and slowly dissolving. The towering tree is dancing gently. The sky… the sky? High, expansive… nothing but the calm, smiling sky with peace raining from it.”

Palace Walk, Vol 1 in The Cairo Trilogy (Black Swan edition, 1995).

Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006)

• BBC Radio 4 will broadcast a reading of Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy in the Classic Serial programme slot, starting on 15th October 2006.