Empire, Celebrity and Excess: King Farouk of Egypt and British Culture 1936-1965

While now long-forgotten, King Farouk of Egypt loomed large in British culture in the 1940s and 1950s. Farouk was of interest and importance, not just to British imperial policy makers, but to a wider public that was exposed to his extravagant lifestyle and colourful private life through gossip columns, comedy sketches, cartoons, song lyrics and novels.

This book explores how the narratives and representations of King Farouk found in British official and popular culture dramatized the retrea...