WATANI International
8 February 2009
Mary Fikry
Maged Shuhdy
The UK was this year’s guest of honour at the Cairo International Book Fair.
Some of Britain’s top writers—novelists, poets and children’s authors—were at the fair to take part in events with their Egyptian counterparts. They were joined by scientists, musicians and actors to complete a programme of cultural events, managed by the British Council in Cairo.
British Ambassador Dominic Asquith said that culture and commerce have characterised many of the exchanges between Egypt and Britain over the years. “What is rarer is for the two so closely to overlap,” he said. “The United Kingdom is delighted to have been invited as guest of honour at this year’s Cairo International Book Fair, where the business of publishing is as much of a feature as the cultural debates between intellectuals, writers, scientists and the reading public.
“Writers may write and publishers may publish, but both activities are pointless unless they find readers. So an important part of our cultural programme focused on encouraging reading for everyone, whatever their age.”
This was in a nutshell the focus of all the UK sponsored events at the fair. These included the Literary Café and book signing ceremonies on almost a daily basis, poetry reading evenings, reading activities for children, film screenings, street theatre, and a vocal music performance by I Fagiolini. Twice daily, panel discussions were held on such topics as engaging young people with Ancient Egypt, how writers find inspiration with other cultures despite present-day politics, trends in teenage fiction, and adapting books for films.