The British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

 presence in Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

 in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 had, as a side effect, the concentration of a group of Cairo poets. There had in fact been a noticeable literary group in Cairo

Cairo

Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

 before the war in North Africa

North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...

 broke out, including university academics. Possibly as a reflection of that, there were two strands of literary activity and publication during the years 1942-1944. There was the Personal Landscape group centred on the publication of that name, founded by Lawrence Durrell

Lawrence Durrell

Lawrence George Durrell was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer, though he resisted affiliation with Britain and preferred to be considered cosmopolitan...

, Robin Fedden and Bernard Spencer

Bernard Spencer

Charles Bernard Spencer was an English poet, translator, and editor.He was born in Madras, India and educated at Marlborough College and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. At Marlborough he knew John Betjeman and Louis MacNeice; at Oxford Stephen Spender, and he also came across W. H. Auden. He...

. There was also the Salamander

Salamander: A Miscellany of Poetry

Salamander: A Miscellany of Poetry was an anthology of poetry published by George Allen and Unwin in 1947 and featuring the work of many of the Cairo poets. It was edited by Keith Bullen and John Cromer. The title alluded to the rebirth of culture from the ashes of World War II...

group, which produced a magazine and the Oasis

Oasis (anthology)

Oasis was a literary anthology published in Cairo during World War II. It was edited by Denis Saunders, David Burk, and Victor Selwyn. The introduction was written by General Henry Maitland Wilson, who was at this time Commander-in-Chief of the Middle East....

series of anthologies. To over-simplify, the first group produced poetic reputations, while the second, founded by servicemen, broadcast appeals and collected an archive of 17,000 poems written at the period.

In fact poets like Terence Tiller

Terence Tiller

Terence Rogers Tiller was an English poet and radio producer.-Early life:He was born in Truro, Cornwall. His early career was in medieval history at the University of Cambridge. During the World War II he taught in Cairo.-BBC:In 1946 he joined the BBC; and was a known Fitzrovian...

 and G. S. Fraser

G. S. Fraser

George Sutherland Fraser was a Scottish poet, literary critic and academic. He was born in Glasgow, later moving with his family to Aberdeen. He went to the University of St. Andrews....

 had a foot in both camps. Keith Douglas

Keith Douglas

Keith Castellain Douglas , was an English poet noted for his war poetry during World War II and his wry memoir of the Western Desert Campaign, Alamein to Zem Zem. He was killed during the invasion of Normandy.-Poetry:...

, the iconic war poet

War poet

A War poet is a poet writing in time of and on the subject of war. The term, which is applied especially to those in military service during World War I, was documented as early as 1848 in reference to German revolutionary poet, Georg Herwegh.-Crimean War:...

, was associated with the Personal Landscape group. Alan Rook

Alan Rook

Alan Rook was a Cairo poet and edited the 1936 issue of New Oxford Poetry. After World War II he became a wine trader.-External links:*...

, John Gawsworth

John Gawsworth

John Gawsworth , a pseudonym of Terence Ian Fytton Armstrong , was a British writer, poet and compiler of anthologies, both of poetry and of short stories. He also used the pseudonym Orpheus Scrannel...

 and John Waller

Sir John Waller, 7th Baronet

Sir John Stanier Waller, 7th Baronet was an English author, poet and journalist. He was one of the group of Cairo poets during World War II...

 published in Salamander.

Several of the Cairo poets appeared in the 'Poets in Uniform' issue of Tambimuttu's Poetry London

Poetry London

Poetry London is a London-based literary periodical. As Poetry London: A Bi-Monthly of Modern Verse and Criticism it was founded by Tambimuttu and the first issue was dated January/February 1939.In a new form the magazine is still in print....

early in 1941.

An English literary presence persisted after the war, in the persons of P. H. Newby

P. H. Newby

Percy Howard Newby CBE was an English novelist and broadcasting administrator. He was the first winner of the Booker Prize, his novel Something to Answer For having received the inaugural award in 1969.-Early life:P.H...

, Robert Liddell

Robert Liddell

Robert Liddell was an English literary critic, biographer, novelist, travel writer and poet. He was born in Tunbridge Wells, England, and educated at Haileybury School and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. During the years 1933 to 1938 he was employed at the Bodleian Library as an assistant in...

, Denys Johnson-Davies

Denys Johnson-Davies

Denys Johnson-Davies is an eminent Arabic-into-English literary translator who has translated, inter alia, several works by Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz, Sudanese author Tayeb Salih, Palestinian poet Mahmud Darwish and Syrian author Zakaria Tamer.Davies, referred to as “the...

, Hilary Corke

Hilary Corke

Hilary Topham Corke was a writer, composer and mineralogist...

 and D. J. Enright

D. J. Enright

Dennis Joseph Enright was a British academic, poet, novelist and critic, and general man of letters.-Life:He was born in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, and educated at Leamington College and Downing College, Cambridge...

.

Poets in Personal Landscape. An Anthology of Exile (1945)

Keith Douglas

Keith Douglas

Keith Castellain Douglas , was an English poet noted for his war poetry during World War II and his wry memoir of the Western Desert Campaign, Alamein to Zem Zem. He was killed during the invasion of Normandy.-Poetry:...

, Lawrence Durrell

Lawrence Durrell

Lawrence George Durrell was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer, though he resisted affiliation with Britain and preferred to be considered cosmopolitan...

, Harold Edwards, Robin Fedden, G. S. Fraser

G. S. Fraser

George Sutherland Fraser was a Scottish poet, literary critic and academic. He was born in Glasgow, later moving with his family to Aberdeen. He went to the University of St. Andrews....

, Diana Gould

Diana Gould

Diana Gould is a screenwriter for television and a short story author.-Positions Held:Berrenger's*Producer & Writer Dynasty*Producer *Story Writer Family*Writer Knot's Landing...

, Charles Hepburn, Robert Liddell

Robert Liddell

Robert Liddell was an English literary critic, biographer, novelist, travel writer and poet. He was born in Tunbridge Wells, England, and educated at Haileybury School and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. During the years 1933 to 1938 he was employed at the Bodleian Library as an assistant in...

, Olivia Manning

Olivia Manning

Olivia Mary Manning CBE was a British novelist, poet, writer and reviewer. Her fiction and non-fiction, frequently detailing journeys and personal odysseys, were principally set in England, Ireland, Europe and the Middle East. She often wrote from her personal experience, though her books also...

, Elie Papadimitiou, Hugh Gordon Porteus

Hugh Gordon Porteus

Hugh Gordon Porteus was an influential reviewer of art and literature in the London of the 1930s, and also a poet. He was an admirer of Wyndham Lewis and wrote the first critical book on him, published in 1932...

, George Seferis, Ruth Speirs, Bernard Spencer

Bernard Spencer

Charles Bernard Spencer was an English poet, translator, and editor.He was born in Madras, India and educated at Marlborough College and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. At Marlborough he knew John Betjeman and Louis MacNeice; at Oxford Stephen Spender, and he also came across W. H. Auden. He...

, Terence Tiller

Terence Tiller

Terence Rogers Tiller was an English poet and radio producer.-Early life:He was born in Truro, Cornwall. His early career was in medieval history at the University of Cambridge. During the World War II he taught in Cairo.-BBC:In 1946 he joined the BBC; and was a known Fitzrovian...

, Gwyn Williams.

External links

• Salamander Oasis Trust — including brief historical note