While some of the characters who appear in this book are based on historical figures, and while many of theareas described—such as the Gilf Kebir and its surrounding desert—exist, and were explored in the 19305, it isimportant to stress that this story is a fiction and that the portraits of the characters who appear in it are fictional,as are some of the events and journeys.
I would like to thank the Royal Geographical Society, London, for allowing me to read archival material and toglean from their Geographical Journals the world of explorers and their journeys—often beautifully recorded bytheir writers. I have quoted a passage from Hassanein Bey’s article “Through Kufra to Darfur” (1924),describing sandstorms, and I have drawn from him and other explorers to evoke the desert of the 19305. I wouldlike to acknowledge information drawn from Dr. Richard A. Hermann’s “Historical Problems of the LibyanDesert” (1934) and R. A. Bagnold’s review of Almasy’s monograph on his explorations in the desert.
Many books were important to me in my research. Unexploded Bomb by Major A. B. Hartley was especiallyuseful in re-creating the construction of bombs and in describing the British bomb disposal units at the start ofWorld War II. I have quoted directly from his book (the italicized lines in the “In Situ” section) and have basedsome of Kirpal Singh s methods of defusing on actual techniques that Hartley records. Information found in thepatient’s notebook on the nature of certain winds is drawn from Lyall Watson’s wonderful book Heavens Breath,direct quotes appearing in quotation marks. The section from the Candaules-Gyges story in Herodotus’sHistories is from the 1890 translation by G. C. Mc-Cauley (Macmillan). Other quotations from Herodotus use theDavid Grene translation (University of Chicago Press). The line in italics on page 21 is by Christopher Smart; thelines in italics on page 144 are from John Milton s Paradise Lost; the line Hana remembers on page 288 is byAnne Wilkinson. I would also like to acknowledge Alan Moorehead’s The Villa Diana, which dis.cusses the lifeof Poliziano in Tuscany. Other important books were Mary McCarthy’s The Stones of Florence; LeonardMosley’s The Cat and the Mice; G. W. L. Nicholson’s The Canadians in Italy 1943-? and Canada’s NursingSisters; The Marshall Cavendish Encyclopaedia of World War H; F. Yeats-Brown’s Martial India; and threeother books on the Indian military: The Tiger Strikes and The Tiger Kills, published in 1942 by the Directorateof Public Relations, New Delhi, India, and A Roll of Honor.
Thanks to the English department at Glendon College, York University, the Villa Serbelloni, the RockefellerFoundation, and the Metropolitan Toronto Ref.erence Library.
I would like to thank the following for their generous help: Elisabeth Dennys, who let me read her letters writtenfrom Egypt during the war; Sister Margaret at the Villa San Girolamo; Michael Williamson at the NationalLibrary of Can.ada, Ottawa; Anna Jardine; Rodney Dennys; Linda Spalding; Ellen Levine. And Lally Marwah,Douglas LePan, David Young and Donya Peroff.
Finally a special thanks to Ellen Seligman, Liz Calder and Sonny Mehta.
The End
I would like to thank the Royal Geographical Society, London, for allowing me to read archival material and toglean from their Geographical Journals the world of explorers and their journeys—often beautifully recorded bytheir writers. I have quoted a passage from Hassanein Bey’s article “Through Kufra to Darfur” (1924),describing sandstorms, and I have drawn from him and other explorers to evoke the desert of the 19305. I wouldlike to acknowledge information drawn from Dr. Richard A. Hermann’s “Historical Problems of the LibyanDesert” (1934) and R. A. Bagnold’s review of Almasy’s monograph on his explorations in the desert.
Many books were important to me in my research. Unexploded Bomb by Major A. B. Hartley was especiallyuseful in re-creating the construction of bombs and in describing the British bomb disposal units at the start ofWorld War II. I have quoted directly from his book (the italicized lines in the “In Situ” section) and have basedsome of Kirpal Singh s methods of defusing on actual techniques that Hartley records. Information found in thepatient’s notebook on the nature of certain winds is drawn from Lyall Watson’s wonderful book Heavens Breath,direct quotes appearing in quotation marks. The section from the Candaules-Gyges story in Herodotus’sHistories is from the 1890 translation by G. C. Mc-Cauley (Macmillan). Other quotations from Herodotus use theDavid Grene translation (University of Chicago Press). The line in italics on page 21 is by Christopher Smart; thelines in italics on page 144 are from John Milton s Paradise Lost; the line Hana remembers on page 288 is byAnne Wilkinson. I would also like to acknowledge Alan Moorehead’s The Villa Diana, which dis.cusses the lifeof Poliziano in Tuscany. Other important books were Mary McCarthy’s The Stones of Florence; LeonardMosley’s The Cat and the Mice; G. W. L. Nicholson’s The Canadians in Italy 1943-? and Canada’s NursingSisters; The Marshall Cavendish Encyclopaedia of World War H; F. Yeats-Brown’s Martial India; and threeother books on the Indian military: The Tiger Strikes and The Tiger Kills, published in 1942 by the Directorateof Public Relations, New Delhi, India, and A Roll of Honor.
Thanks to the English department at Glendon College, York University, the Villa Serbelloni, the RockefellerFoundation, and the Metropolitan Toronto Ref.erence Library.
I would like to thank the following for their generous help: Elisabeth Dennys, who let me read her letters writtenfrom Egypt during the war; Sister Margaret at the Villa San Girolamo; Michael Williamson at the NationalLibrary of Can.ada, Ottawa; Anna Jardine; Rodney Dennys; Linda Spalding; Ellen Levine. And Lally Marwah,Douglas LePan, David Young and Donya Peroff.
Finally a special thanks to Ellen Seligman, Liz Calder and Sonny Mehta.
The End