The mystery of walking through the palmeraie by night. The silence of the universe blots out the noisiness of man. Hopkins wrote the preceding lines on December 23rd, 1966, but by the 24th, he is more interested in lanterns made of tin cans, and a Moroccan schoolboy, who, hoping to start a conversation, recites all the French he knows from school: "Bonsoir, monsieur. Quelle heure est-il?"

John Hopkins is a writer from the USA who spent almost two decades in Tangier from the age of 18. He member of the Anglo/American literary crowd of the 1960s and 1970s, becoming friends with William Burroughs, Paul Bowles and Jane Bowles, Rudolf Nureyev, Joe Orton, Barbara Hutton and Malcolm Forbes. He also taught in the American School from 1962-1965, before moving to Marrakesh. His writing varies from poetic, reflective to vernacular and antic.