A luminous memoir of post-war childhood, adventure and loss on the banks of the Nile.

‘Wonderful – a brave, inventive, touching distillation of memory and imagination’ JENNY UGLOW

Inventory of a Life Mislaid follows Marina Warner’s beautiful, penniless young mother Ilia as she leaves southern Italy in 1945 to travel alone to London. Her husband, an English colonel, is still away in the war in the East as she begins to learn how to be Mrs Esmond Warner, an Englishwoman.

With diamond rings on her fingers and brogues on her feet, Ilia steps fearlessly into the world of cricket and riding. But, without prospect of work in a bleak, war-ravaged England, Esmond remembers the glorious ease of Cairo during his periods of leave from the desert campaign. There, they start a bookshop, a branch of W. H. Smith’s. But growing resistance to foreign interests, especially British, erupts in the 1952 uprising, and the Cairo Fire burns the city clean.

Evocative and imaginative, at once historical and speculative, this memoir powerfully resurrects the fraught union and unrequited hopes of Warner’s parents. Memory intertwines richly with myth, the river Lethe feeling as real as the Nile. Vivid recollections of Cairo swirl with ever-present dreams of a city where Warner’s parents, friends and associates are still restlessly wandering.

This autobiography is a biography that delves into the heart of post-war Cairo, a city that was once a beacon for literary figures and top authors. Warner's poignant exploration of her parents life, their struggles, and their dreams is a testament to their resilience and their unyielding spirit in the face of adversity.

For fans of Joseph Campbell (The Hero’s Journey), Hallie Rubenhold (The Five), George Szirtes (The Photographer at Sixteen), Annie Ernaux (The Years – WINNER OF THE 2022 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE), and Rory Stewart (Politics On the Edge).

Inventory of a Life Mislaid: An Unreliable Memoir

Inventory of a Life Mislaid: An Unreliable Memoir