Into Suez

Stevie Davies was born in Swansea, Wales and spent a nomadic childhood in Egypt, Scotland and Germany. After studying at Manchester University, she went on to lecture there, returning to Swansea in 2001. She is Director of Creative Writing Swansea University. Stevie is both a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Fellow of the Welsh Academy.She writes for the Guardian and Independent newspapers. INTO SUEZ is her eleventh novel. Her first, BOY BLUE (1987) won the Fawcett Society Book Prize in 1989. CLOSING THE BOOK (1994) was longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Fawcett Society Book Prize. Her fifth novel, FOUR DREAMERS AND EMILY, described as 'poignant, funny and luminous' by Helen Dunmore, was published in 1996. THE WEB OF BELONGING (1997) was shortlisted for the Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year Prize and the Portico prize and dramatized for ITV by Alan Plater. Her next novel, IMPASSIONED CLAY (1999) was also shortlisted for the Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year Award. Her eighth novel, THE ELEMENT OF WATER (2001), was longlisted both for the Booker and the Orange Prizes and won the Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year Award for 2002; Stevie adapted it as a radio play for BBC Radio 4. Her ninth novel, KITH AND KIN was longlisted for the Orange Prize and the film rights have been bought. THE EYRIE was published in 2007, to great acclaim. Stevie has also written thirteen books of literary criticism and history including UNBRIDLED SPIRITS: WOMEN OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION (1998). A CENTURY OF TROUBLES: ENGLAND 1600-1700 (2001) accompanied the Channel 4 series of documentary films about the century.

1949: Egypt's struggle against its British occupiers moves towards crisis; Israel declares its statehood, driving out the Arabs; Joe Roberts, an RAF sergeant, his wife Ailsa and daughter, Nia, leave Wales for Egypt. "Into Suez" is a compelling human and political drama, set in the postwar period when Britain, the bankrupt victor of the Second World War, attempted to assert itself as an Imperial power in a world wholly altered. The novel is set in the run-up to the Suez Crisis, a template for future invasions (Iraq and Afghanistan being the most recent). In this moving story, Joe's tragedy is that of an ordinary working man of his generation: he's a lovely, humorous, emotional man in whom the common ration of racism and misogyny becomes a painful sickness. Ailsa, intelligent, curious and craving to explore the realities of the Egypt she enters, meets on the voyage out Mona, a Palestinian woman who excites in her yearning for a world beyond her horizons. When Joe's closest friend is murdered by Egyptian terrorists, their relationship spirals towards tragedy. Through it all, love remains. Looking back in old age, their daughter Nia follows in their wake to sail the Suez Canal with the aged Mona. Nia has been told her father was a war hero: now she will face a more painful truth.