Boat mystery deepens
From Colonel the Hon. Alastair Campbell Sir: I am fortunate that my wife forwards her copy of The Spectator to me in Baghdad to provide some hours of pleasure amid the dismal sandstorms and bombs. In the 10 September edition my eye caught Trevor Grove’s Diary and the name of his recently acquired boat. He was puzzled by the name, Deglet Nour, which he assumes was taken from the label of a date box; but there is a more romantic possibility. The name in Arabic means Tigris Light (albeit in an Egyptian accent) and one can perhaps picture this vessel in pre-1958 Iraq cutting around the Mesopotamian marshes before the boring Baathists and insufferable Saddam changed the cultural contours of this ancient country.
Alastair Campbell
Defence attaché, British Embassy, Baghdad
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