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Available
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Publication
Penguin
Description
Having learned to appreciate Muslim life while living in Pakistan, Peter Mayne settled down to live in the back streets of Marrakesh in the 1950s. Rather than watch from the shelter of a hotel terrace, he rented rooms, learned the language, made friends, and became embroiled in conspiratorial picnics, hashish-laced dinners and in the enchantments and misunderstandings of the street, with its festivals, love affairs, potions and gossip. By turns used, abused and cherished by his neighbours, Mayne wrote their letters for them and captured the essence of their lives in this affectionate and hilarious acount.
User reviews
LibraryThing member CarltonC
Recounting Peter Mayne’s time in Marrakesh in the early 1950’s, this excellent travel book really does feel as if it gives you a glimpse into another place and another time. This is largely because Peter Mayne chooses from monetary necessity to live in the old Arab part of Marrakesh in order to
He sets out the reasons for his way of life late in the book when meeting a familiar old acquaintance:
Overcivilised! And you are too! We’ve become caught up in our brilliant little world of progress and prophylaxis and can’t seem to see that the only way to make that tolerable would be to have an intellect and a life of it. But we haven’t got intellects, you and I! So what does that make us. Just sillies with insurance policies against life or death, and instincts bound up in insulating tape! And you are too!
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attempt to live as far as possible without money worries, writing a novel (never published) and keeping a journal, which became this enchanting book.He sets out the reasons for his way of life late in the book when meeting a familiar old acquaintance:
Overcivilised! And you are too! We’ve become caught up in our brilliant little world of progress and prophylaxis and can’t seem to see that the only way to make that tolerable would be to have an intellect and a life of it. But we haven’t got intellects, you and I! So what does that make us. Just sillies with insurance policies against life or death, and instincts bound up in insulating tape! And you are too!
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Local notes
Penguin 1230