Durrell fans fight to save his home in Alexandria

THE term “faded grandeur” might have been invented for Alexandria. So much of the Egyptian resort’s cosmopolitan elegance has faded that one more crumbling palace might not seem to make much difference.

But the planned demolition of Villa Ambron, although already a tumbledown wreck, has provoked a reaction that might save something of the city’s unusual heritage — just as it seemed about to be buried.

With its belle époque architecture, the house has distinctive qualities in its own right. But it is as the home and inspiration of Lawrence Durrell, whose The Alexandria Quartet preserved in high-flown prose the city’s international flavour, that it is now honoured and has a campaign growing to save it.

Durrell, who died in 1990 and whose 100th anniversary was last year, lived there during World War 2, taking up with the lover who became the model for Justine, the novels’ heroine. Now the owner, developer Abdulaziz Ahmed Abdulaziz, has obtained a permit to knock the villa down.

There has been little outcry from most nearby residents for whom the house is just one of a string of dangerously collapsing monuments to another age. But a group of tour guides, architects, historians and enthusiasts is appealing for help to save it.

“In the past we have always cried for these buildings after they are demolished,” said Zahraa Adel Awed, a guide who, since 2008, has organised walking tours of “Durrell’s Alexandria” for fans of the books from around the world. “Why don’t we start crying before they are demolished?”

Alexandria’s historic role as an orphan city, built by the Greeks in a foreign country, was revived under British colonial rule in Egypt. It became a magnet for Europeans, particularly Italians, Greeks and Jews. Durrell moved there when his life as a writer in Greece became untenable after the Nazi invasion.

Aldo Ambron, one of the city’s wealthiest men, became a patron of the arts through his painter wife, Amelia, and daughter Gilda. They offered Durrell the use of the top floor of their villa.

He took to writing in the octagonal two-storey folly on the roof, known to this day as Durrell’s Tower.

The Alexandria Quartet was an immediate sensation and sealed his place among the greats of 20th-century English literature. It was filmed as Justine with Dirk Bogarde, Michael York and Anouk Aimée in the title role and won Durrell a nomination for the Nobel prize for literature.

“Yes, we know Lawrence Durrell has many friends,” said Abdulaziz. “If they want to buy the villa they are most welcome.”

He said it was going for $5-million (about R50million). — © The Sunday Telegraph, London