You Learn A Lot, Writing Fiction.

I'm Not A Historian But I Can Get Interested - Obsessively Interested - With Any Aspect Of The Past, Whether It's Palaeontology Or Archaeology Or The Very Recent Past.

There's A Preoccupation With Memory And The Operation Of Memory And A Rather Rapacious Interest In History.

Equally, We Require A Collective Past - Hence The Endless Reinterpretations Of History, Frequently To Suit The Perceptions Of The Present.

Born In Jerusalem, Wadie Said Went From Being A Dragoman To A Salesman In The United States And Thence To A Hugely Successful Businessman In Egypt.

Mythology Is Much Better Stuff Than History. It Has Form; Logic; A Message.