Needles, columns and pillars…

CHRIS BENNETT has been rambling around books again.

A DISH of saltimbocca was the highlight of a week of highlights. Which I must admit makes a change.

I had a fair amount of business in and around the bank in Margate, the various interesting or gloomy offices of those kind people whose lot in life is to complete those aspects of the lives of others which usually end in tears; taxes, legalities and all the ramifications of trying to stay afloat with next to no income.

Lunch at La Capanina seemed like a good idea and I hadn’t been there for some time. The delightful Barbara has extended her beautiful view by adding yet more charm to the dreary wall facing some of her best tables. It is the wall of the next building, and Barbara has given it life and soul and turned it into the image of a small Tuscan townhouse. The effect is astonishing.

Research has been at the heart of most of the rest of the week, as it often is.

I came across an article on some aspect of life in Alexandria, Egypt, during the period of the Second World War. Some readers of this column may be familiar with both time and place, so I apologise in advance for any gaffes.

Lawrence Durrell, one of the great English (language – he considered himself cosmopolitan) writers of the last century came into the article and I immediately recalled passages from his writing. If I have ever learnt anything about writing it is from Durrell and his friend at the time in Alexandria, Elizabeth David, another great writer whose subject happened to be food.

There is an excellent page on Wikipedia which discusses the history and life of this extraordinary city. The Egyptian people are understandably proud of this ancient place, which was rebuilt in 330BC by Alexander the Great, who, quite rightly, named it after himself.

It was here that the great Library of Alexandria stood from about the 3^rd century; it was destroyed by fire several times, robbing humanity of possibly its most important antiquarian records. The recently opened Library of Alexandria (Bibliotheca Alexandrina, 2003) stands on the sight of the great library of 2000 years ago.

It was in Alexandria that Cleopatra’s Needles were found. At school we wondered what she was knitting at the time. There were two obelisks, one is now in New York and the other in London. It is fitting that these objects so vibrantly interwoven with western development should have a role in the lives of the world’s two greatest cities.

The Greek friezes known as the Elgin Marbles were taken from Athens by a British Archeologist (Lord Elgin) and have been a bone of contention ever since. Merlina Mercury, a Greek singer of some years back fought to have them returned.

The Greeks have, I fear, lost their marbles.

One of Alexandria’s most famous ruins is Pompey’s Pillar. Including its pedestal, is it 30 metres high. It is of polished red granite, 2.7 meters in diameter at the base, tapering to 2.4 meters at the top. The shaft is made out of a single piece of granite; this would be 132 cubic metres or approximately 396 tons. The pillar has nothing to do with the Roman Emperor Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, which comes as no great surprise. It was erected by Diocletian in 293 and we still don’t know how.

It is a column of great note.

We shall doubtless hear more about these things with the imminent arrival of the Egyptian and Greek football teams.