210x148mm • 192pp •Hardback
ISBN: 978-1-914325-11-3 Price: £29.50 May 2023 
EffendinaIn the media:
Point de Vue magazine 
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EFFENDINA
The Story of the Young King Farouk of Egypt, 1920 - 1943 Melekper Toussoun The remarkable story of the young King Farouk, a ruler widely maligned and deeply misunderstood.
“... la description du drame du Roi Farouk est digne du meilleur roman policier, sauf qu’il s’agit de la grande Histoire. C’est clair, attachant convaincant et émouvant." “...Farouk's unimpeachable nationalism, his popularity ... and his courteous personality, adolescent pranks notwithstanding; all of which needs to be repeatedly highlighted. …[An] elegant job of skimming over the tawdry gossip that is usually the focus of sensational biographies of Farouk." "Sensitively and honestly, you have rendered justice to a man, a King (your father), who was often criticized, sometimes vilified, and greatly misunderstood." King Farouk came to the throne in 1936, at the tender age of 16. The young monarch’s rule was to the be the last in a dynasty that had run this ancient land since 1805 - a relatively short time span beneath the long shadow of Giza’s pyramids.
Melekper Toussoun’s account is a history told from the inside, as someone who was part of that final dynasty. In a country whose history is fascinatingly complex and tumultuous, theirs was a family at centre stage, buffeted by joys and tragedies as intense as any that had gone before. They held the helm until the monarchy was toppled in a coup d'état in 1952 – a coup d’état that would probably not have taken place had the young king not suffered an accident that affected the neuronal pathways in his brain. Toussoun’s evocative and highly personal narrative is a window into a secret garden. At its core is the story of the young monarch, and the account pivots on one central event that was to change everything - Farouk’s car accident on a country road in 1943.
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About the Author
Melekper Toussoun spent her early childhood in Cairo and at the age of 14 moved to spend a year with her aunt, Emine Toussoun, in Washington DC. She went ono to join her mother, step-father and younger brother in Rio de Janeiro. There she completed her schooling, moving to live in Paris at 21, where she became a French citizen and has resided ever since. After a period working in the hotel business she became a trilingual interpreter (French-English-Portuguese) at the agency for the "Programme d’invitation des personnalités d’avenir" at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. |
Table of Contents
PREFACE: Incorporating November 1943 -"Maktoub" § SECTION ONE – BACKGROUND The Paternal Line § CHAPTER I A Short History of Modern Egypt § The Maternal Line. §. CHAPTER II A Lifetime Has Gone by § CHAPTER – III Her Youth and Marriage § CHAPTER IV Back to Cairo § CHAPTER V My Mother's Origins – Chirines and the Crimea § CHAPTER VI § Government, Society and Customs in the Crimea- the end of the Tatars § SECTION TWO - KING FAROUK’S LIFE § CHAPTER VII Farouk's Lonely Childhood § CHAPTER VIII Beginnings 1936 § CHAPTER IX § Colonialism : The Story of a Ballad § CHAPTER X "He Reigns but does Nothing Rule" § CHAPTER XI Events Leading up to Abdin § CHAPTER XII The Abdin Incident § SECTION THREE - THE UNDERLYING CAUSE - A FRONTAL LOBE SYNDROME § CHAPTER XIII Frontal Lobe Syndrome § CHAPTER XIV "Why Farouk was no longer Farouk" § CHAPTER XV The Accident and why, "Farouk could not help himself because he was no longer himself" AFTERWORD
PREFACE: Incorporating November 1943 -"Maktoub" § SECTION ONE – BACKGROUND The Paternal Line § CHAPTER I A Short History of Modern Egypt § The Maternal Line. §. CHAPTER II A Lifetime Has Gone by § CHAPTER – III Her Youth and Marriage § CHAPTER IV Back to Cairo § CHAPTER V My Mother's Origins – Chirines and the Crimea § CHAPTER VI § Government, Society and Customs in the Crimea- the end of the Tatars § SECTION TWO - KING FAROUK’S LIFE § CHAPTER VII Farouk's Lonely Childhood § CHAPTER VIII Beginnings 1936 § CHAPTER IX § Colonialism : The Story of a Ballad § CHAPTER X "He Reigns but does Nothing Rule" § CHAPTER XI Events Leading up to Abdin § CHAPTER XII The Abdin Incident § SECTION THREE - THE UNDERLYING CAUSE - A FRONTAL LOBE SYNDROME § CHAPTER XIII Frontal Lobe Syndrome § CHAPTER XIV "Why Farouk was no longer Farouk" § CHAPTER XV The Accident and why, "Farouk could not help himself because he was no longer himself" AFTERWORD