{"id":6754,"date":"2021-03-15T11:19:51","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T11:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stuartpoetry.art\/?p=6754"},"modified":"2021-03-15T11:20:54","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T11:20:54","slug":"a-book-on-my-coffee-table","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/15\/a-book-on-my-coffee-table\/","title":{"rendered":"A Book on my Coffee Table"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a book on my coffee table called The Fortunes of War<\/em> which was written by Olivia Manning just over half a century ago<\/p>\n

Only volume two (The Levant Trilogy<\/em>) sits in front of me and its battered cover shows a young Harriet Pringle looking into the distance with one of the many Egyptian pyramids in the background<\/p>\n

It is obviously a staged photograph as the light is just right and it has a pleasing composition<\/p>\n

I have often studied this photograph and wondered what Harriet was thinking about as her face gives no clues<\/p>\n

Is she contemplating her journey to Damascus which later causes so much confusion and pain to her husband Guy.<\/p>\n

Or do her thoughts travel beyond this and my assumption<\/p>\n

Is Harriet looking into the future and considering the changes that have taken place in Egypt since the war<\/p>\n

The pyramids are still there but you will not find Harriet and Guy Pringle in Cairo or elsewhere as they are now only memories<\/p>\n

Forgotten by those who should have remembered them<\/p>\n

Is Egypt a better place or has it just stagnated without its mothers hand<\/p>\n

Who am I to answer this question<\/p>\n

I have my views which are private to me and I do not suppose they are fashionable in these enlightened<\/em> times<\/p>\n

It is many years since I have read the book but I still keep it on my coffee table to remind me of the order of things<\/p>\n

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From The Order of Things by Pip Martin (2013)<\/em><\/p>\n

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I have a book on my coffee table called The Fortunes of War which was written by Olivia Manning just over half a century ago Only volume two (The Levant Trilogy) sits in front of me and its battered cover shows a young Harriet Pringle looking into the distance with one of the many Egyptian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6754"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6754\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}