Buckingham Palace received a message in the name of Queen Elizabeth II all the way from Egypt, but this time it had nothing to do with politics. It was all about literature. Media personality Sherif El Hotabiy sent his first ever english novel to the Queen for a couple of reasons. First, El Hotabiy said that it was his long lived dream ever since he was a child, to send his novel to the Queen believing that Her Majesty just might read it one day for She is the Queen of his birth place and where he lived most of his childhood.
The second reason was that El Hotabiy wanted to reward himself morally for finishing his first novel that took him six tiring years to write and even more to prepare. Seeing the notification saying that the package was delivered to Buckingham Palace was enough for him to feel satisfactorily rewarded.
Sherif El Hotabiy’s first novel in English language titled “The Merchant” was initially released in May 2021 by ElSaid Publishing House and reached readers through a number of digital platforms and renowned bookstores in Egypt. And is planned to be available to readers in Europe, USA, Australia and Canada.
El Hotabiy also expressed his gratitude for the great feedback he had received from readers so far after participating in Cairo International Book Fair’s 52nd round, the biggest and most significant book fair in the Middle East.
He added that the long awaited novel took around 11 years to finish, five of which were spent in preparation and background studies, while the writing process itself took some good 6 years alone, He struggled to find time to write in the midst of his busy schedule working in the media field, throughout the years, as a tv presenter, news anchor, editor in chief and reporter and most recently a TV presenter for CBC Sofra’s successful and widely loved show “Sandwich & Haga Sa’aa”.
The fiction novel is inspired by many legends, myths and fairytales and focuses on the most looked up to sea master of all times “Zhen Hu”. The man who owned a fleet made of thousands of ships and a colossal fortune of gold faces a cunning conspiracy plotted against him by underworld crime lords and pirates.
He said “The Merchant” started to form up in my mind when I was in school and it kept on expanding because of its compatible nature that smoothly merged with other stories, but the real trigger was when I watched a documentary about “Zhen Hu” and found him the perfect fit to the novel’s main character or hero. The inspirations where so many that I even listed them at the back of the book; Stories like cinderella, red riding hood, Arthur; music, buildings, characters, everyone or everything that told a story inspired me.”
He added “I think my imagination was developed and trained when I moved from London to Cairo at a young age. I couldn’t understand a single Arabic word, so I had to imagine the story behind every thing that going on around me. Even when I looked at comic books, I had to imagine a story that fitted the pictures. Later, I started writing in Arabic then when I studied literature in I.G.C.S.E. I started writing poems in English language and it worked out well that I even won local and international awards. When I graduated I joined Nile TV international and had the chance of writing and presenting the news with a poetic sense. Yes! It took me years of hard work to finish writing my first novel”.
