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Cocktails and Camels
Some fifty years ago I sat down under the mimosa tree in our lovely garden in Alexandria and started to write my first
book, Cocktails and Camels. I had never written anything before, I wrote slowly, painstakingly in pencil. At times I’d walk around the garden thinking, while my five-year old daughter Carol, picked daisies on the grass, and when the right word popped into my head, I was elated. Considering the circumstances of my life at the time I do not know why I found everything so funny as to want to write about it. The Suez Canal had been nationalized, Egypt was being bombed, and my husband and I had separated. Everyone thought I was a little eccentric to be writing a book. “You’ll land us all in prison!” my father said. He was Jules Klat Bey, President of the Bourse, the Cotton Exchange, and a prominent Alexandrian. So I quickly made up my mind to use a pen-name, mine and my daughter’s, Jacqueline Carol. I also invented an America husband, called Bill, and two imaginary sisters, without even mentioning my brother. As for my friends, the only thing that seemed to interest them was whether they would feature in my book! Every day I sat and write, Soliman, our suffragi, brought me coffee mazboot and a glass of water on a tray. Now and then our devoted “dada”, Nagibeh, would cry from one of the balconies, “Jaakee, ya habibti, ya rohi, all this writing is bad for your eyes!” She could neither read nor write, but she was far more human than many who could.
book, Cocktails and Camels. I had never written anything before, I wrote slowly, painstakingly in pencil. At times I’d walk around the garden thinking, while my five-year old daughter Carol, picked daisies on the grass, and when the right word popped into my head, I was elated. Considering the circumstances of my life at the time I do not know why I found everything so funny as to want to write about it. The Suez Canal had been nationalized, Egypt was being bombed, and my husband and I had separated. Everyone thought I was a little eccentric to be writing a book. “You’ll land us all in prison!” my father said. He was Jules Klat Bey, President of the Bourse, the Cotton Exchange, and a prominent Alexandrian. So I quickly made up my mind to use a pen-name, mine and my daughter’s, Jacqueline Carol. I also invented an America husband, called Bill, and two imaginary sisters, without even mentioning my brother. As for my friends, the only thing that seemed to interest them was whether they would feature in my book! Every day I sat and write, Soliman, our suffragi, brought me coffee mazboot and a glass of water on a tray. Now and then our devoted “dada”, Nagibeh, would cry from one of the balconies, “Jaakee, ya habibti, ya rohi, all this writing is bad for your eyes!” She could neither read nor write, but she was far more human than many who could.
253 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1960
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70 people want to read
About the author
Jacqueline Carol
3 books4 followersJacqueline Carol (born Jacqueline Jules Klat, 1924 – 2014) was an Egyptian-born writer, and both her parents were Egyptian of Lebanese and Syrian descent. She is best known for "Cocktails and Camels", a witty autobiography of her youth in Alexandria that was published in 1960.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 13, 2019
Beautifully and humorously written, this semi-autobiographical novel records the 1930s and 1940s as they were witnessed by an elite Lebanese lady who was born and raised in Alexandria, and how her world placidly and blissfully passed by unscathed by the tumult, violence and massacre which seized Europe at the time. While Britain, for instance, ordered its citizens to tighten their belts, Egypt was seen as land of plenty and surplus, cocktails and camels. This life of ease for many continued uninterrupted until the Triple Aggression on Suez in 1956, when foreigners started to flee Egypt en mass (though they had been trickling out of the country in earnest ever since the war ended in 1945).
October 25, 2025
I finished this autobiographical novel with really mixed feelings, and I have a lot I want to say.
I’ve already read two other novels set in the same era: Beer In The Snooker Club & Seven Days At The Cecil, one of which is also set in Alexandria. They were written by more rooted expats who were also forced to leave, and shared a similar lifestyle to Jacqueline’s. But unlike Cocktails and Camels, those books became instant favorites for me, and I deeply connected with the narrators.
Unfortunately, not this time.
I struggled to like the heroine. She came from a privileged Lebanese family living in Alexandria between the 1920s and 1950s, born into luxury. Yet she constantly referred to herself as Egyptian, while describing the more deeply rooted locals—many of whom lived in poverty created by businessmen like her father—as "Arabs" or "Fellaheen" or "Bedouins". The only locals she refers to as Egyptians are those of high social class or her schoolmates. This subtle alienation led to a tone that often felt ignorant and lacking in compassion whenever she mentioned local Egyptians.
She adopts a British-ish sense of humor, which was witty at times, unnecessary at other times, but often sarcastic and tinged with superiority. I kept wishing she’d turn that critical eye inward, or at least toward the lifestyle her family enjoyed unquestioningly. One telling example is when she describes a party:
"then we got out of the car and I saw something I have never forgotten, though it did not particularly shock me at the time. Because it was August and the Nile was high, the gangway which the guests had to walk on to get to the boat rested on the shoulders of a dozen or so ragged-looking men. Clad in their usual filthy galabias, the ends of which they had grabbed between their teeth, they stood in the slush while the guests, women in expensive gowns and men in spotless white sharkskin jackets, tripped lightheartedly onto the boat."
"It was in this manner and in the company of an American that, for the first time, I learned something of the splendor of Ancient Egypt, which I had not so much as heard mentioned at either of the two schools I had attended because we were so busy learning about the battles of Hastings and Waterloo and rattling off by heart long lists of all the French départements and sous-préfectures."
This quote also stuck with me. I think it captures part of the problem: the unintentional disconnect her generation inherited from such foreign, colonial education system.
Despite covering a politically and socially eventful period, the novel is largely focused on parties. And I quote her: "Life was easy. Labour was cheap. Nothing was impossible". As a result some pages felt repetitive or even boring.
Another issue for me was that most of the characters lacked depth, especially her sisters, and I didn't feel a connection with them.
Still, I consider the book an important documentation of the upper-class Alexandrian life during a fading period, especially with her eloquent, vivid and detailed descriptions, even if seen through a limited lens.
I'd give it a 2.5 rating.
I’ve already read two other novels set in the same era: Beer In The Snooker Club & Seven Days At The Cecil, one of which is also set in Alexandria. They were written by more rooted expats who were also forced to leave, and shared a similar lifestyle to Jacqueline’s. But unlike Cocktails and Camels, those books became instant favorites for me, and I deeply connected with the narrators.
Unfortunately, not this time.
I struggled to like the heroine. She came from a privileged Lebanese family living in Alexandria between the 1920s and 1950s, born into luxury. Yet she constantly referred to herself as Egyptian, while describing the more deeply rooted locals—many of whom lived in poverty created by businessmen like her father—as "Arabs" or "Fellaheen" or "Bedouins". The only locals she refers to as Egyptians are those of high social class or her schoolmates. This subtle alienation led to a tone that often felt ignorant and lacking in compassion whenever she mentioned local Egyptians.
She adopts a British-ish sense of humor, which was witty at times, unnecessary at other times, but often sarcastic and tinged with superiority. I kept wishing she’d turn that critical eye inward, or at least toward the lifestyle her family enjoyed unquestioningly. One telling example is when she describes a party:
"then we got out of the car and I saw something I have never forgotten, though it did not particularly shock me at the time. Because it was August and the Nile was high, the gangway which the guests had to walk on to get to the boat rested on the shoulders of a dozen or so ragged-looking men. Clad in their usual filthy galabias, the ends of which they had grabbed between their teeth, they stood in the slush while the guests, women in expensive gowns and men in spotless white sharkskin jackets, tripped lightheartedly onto the boat."
"It was in this manner and in the company of an American that, for the first time, I learned something of the splendor of Ancient Egypt, which I had not so much as heard mentioned at either of the two schools I had attended because we were so busy learning about the battles of Hastings and Waterloo and rattling off by heart long lists of all the French départements and sous-préfectures."
This quote also stuck with me. I think it captures part of the problem: the unintentional disconnect her generation inherited from such foreign, colonial education system.
Despite covering a politically and socially eventful period, the novel is largely focused on parties. And I quote her: "Life was easy. Labour was cheap. Nothing was impossible". As a result some pages felt repetitive or even boring.
Another issue for me was that most of the characters lacked depth, especially her sisters, and I didn't feel a connection with them.
Still, I consider the book an important documentation of the upper-class Alexandrian life during a fading period, especially with her eloquent, vivid and detailed descriptions, even if seen through a limited lens.
I'd give it a 2.5 rating.
December 30, 2021
I liked the humour in the style of the author's writing. What I liked more, however, is how she took me to a previous era of Egypt, giving a vivid image of two of the major cities in the country, that is, Alexandria and Cairo, as well as a background about the society of the elite and a glimpse of the society of the poor in both cities back in the days. She was describing her memories and expressing her nostalgia, but she made me nostalgic myself to a time I never lived.
July 21, 2022
I bought a limited edition reprint of this novel on a whim at the new Alexandria Library, and I’m so glad that I did. It was interesting to read about the Cairo and Alexandria of the 1930s and 1940s whole touring those cities in 2022. Carol’s descriptions of the settings, characters, and life as it was were sometimes laugh out loud funny, and at other times, poignant and nostalgic. A highly enjoyable read.
June 17, 2013
A humorous tale of a woman growing up in Alexandria during and after WW2. I loved this book, and not just because my mother wrote it. The original 1960 edition is out of print, but a new version was published by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
June 10, 2018
lazeez!
August 16, 2020
I enjoyed the style of writing and the humor. However, the descriptions would go on and on and it gets boring
March 5, 2017
A hilarious portrayal of how wealthy (mostly non-Egyptian) families of Alexandria had a wonderful life during the first half of the twentieth century. Written by a westernised Lebanese who was born in Alexandria, and directed mainly to western readers, this autobiographical novel has only a narrow perspective of how life was in Egypt. It is an easy read and a page-turner nevertheless.
April 3, 2013
a lovely quick and pleasant read.. humorous, light, loved it. it managed to depict a picture of my lovely city, alex, in the 30s and 40s and then the changes that occured after the 1952 revolution. the tone is very sarcastic, .. a bit of social criticism, but not too much of it, and not in a bitter kind of way.. umm, it's nice to go through in a break between two heavy books, or in a trip or sth, .. totally loved it :) :)
February 24, 2013
This is a very interesting book.Reading it was a great fun!!
November 29, 2013
Enjoyed this humorous look at life in Alex in the "golden years". So much, and yet so little, has changed in our society since then.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews