From Cairo to London, to Melbourne’s western suburb of Altona, George Said has lived an interesting, while at times turbulent, life.

Having grown up listening to snippets of his life story, it was a visit from a long-lost relative that inspired his daughter, Helen Said, twelve years ago to start documenting and putting the fragments of the family history together in what would develop into her first book.

Though for Helen, Five Egyptian Pounds is not just a family story, “it’s also a story about multiculturalism,” she says.

Like many migrants, the Said cultural lineage is rich and complex.

Her grandfather from her father’s side, a half-Greek, half-Maltese British subject, lived with his wife in Constantinople, today’s Istanbul.

However, following World War I and Britain’s defeat to Turkey, those branded as British subjects felt unwelcome and so many set their sights on leaving.

An opportunity soon arose with the British Army in Egypt, which would lead to the Said family’s relocation to the Middle East.

Helen’s mother’s family, of Greek and English background, also moved to Egypt during the late 1800s in search of economic opportunity.

“Egypt was once a place of migration, rather like Australia is,” Helen explains to Neos Kosmos.

In Cairo, George met his wife while growing up in the tight-knit Greek community.

However, in 1956 everything would come crumbling down, with conflict between Israel and Egypt reaching its peak during the Suez Canal Crisis.

This resulted in all known British subjects being demanded to leave the country – they were no longer welcome.

“The government told them to leave and they had to sell things to raise money for the plane fares because they weren’t allowed to take money out of the bank – the British assets had been frozen,” she says.

With no British diplomatic presence during the war, the Swiss ligation was the only assistance available to help them escape to England with nothing more than two suitcases and five Egyptian pounds.

The move was never going to be easy, having lost their assets, community and way of life. “The Greeks from Egypt were like their second family,” she explains.

“They also went to an inhospitable climate and the racial climate was rather chilly in those times. In fact, people were still putting up signs in front of apartment blocks ‘Flat to let: No coloured people’.”

She recalls her father being nicknamed the ‘Gypo’ at work, backed into a corner with no equal opportunity legislation in place and no comeback for people wanting to be treated equally.

After six years in England and the birth of Helen, their second daughter, an opportunity arose for the family to come out to Australia, a destination her father had always dreamed of visiting.

“They knew that Australia was a land of migration as Egypt had once been – a land of new beginnings, and they found out that it wasn’t a class-conscious society. So they were going to have opportunities.”

The Australian climate was a big improvement for the Said family, who eventually with their earnings from a manufacturing job built themselves a new home.

Seeking to recreate a similar sense of community that the family had enjoyed in Cairo, George became instrumental in setting up clubs for the general community, including Altona’s first chess club and first anti-pollution group, in addition to volunteering with the school council and trade unions.

However, the land of opportunity was not all they expected.

“They patiently waited for the facilities: sewerage, the roads and footpaths. It’s interesting that they found Altona was far more old-fashioned and backward in many ways than Cairo, because in Cairo they had flushing toilets and made roads.

“Not only that, but people thought they had come from a backward place, when it was actually the other way around,” she says with a laugh.

Although Australia was a big improvement compared with the racism in England, there was still evidence of unease in Australian society with the arrival of new migrants.

However, with a good education and enviable English skills – a rather uncommon combination for most migrants, Mr Said became an advocate for multiculturalism and equality, working as a community development officer during the Whitlam era.

“In my time I’ve met a lot of people who just thought that Gough Whitlam and Al Grassby gave us multiculturalism. That’s not how it happened. People on the ground floor, like my dad, had to fight against persisting racist attitudes,” she shares.

“To start the first elderly citizens club in Australia, my dad was up against people in Footscray Council who didn’t believe that we should have such multicultural organisations.

“People who thought that it was somehow threatening to have organisations for a particular ethnic group. Every ratepayer was paying their rates for clubs that only Anglo-Saxons attended.”

Launched last month as part of Diversity Week, Helen’s book has been well received.

Described by many as engaging and informative, the writer has successfully achieved her aims, with many readers reporting they now feel they know more what it feels like to be a refugee, while becoming aware of the significant influences migrants have had on Australian society at large.

Not only that, but in the current political climate the writer also thought it was time for people to further inform themselves of British colonial history, namely in the Middle East.

“British colonialism has oppressed people in the Middle East and has contributed to many ethnic tensions and international tensions that exist today. Some people would prefer to brand the brown-skinned person, the Islamic person, as being inherently violent, and that’s why we have international tensions,” she says.

Although the tutor turned writer describes the big task of writing her first book as an at times “long and discouraging experience”, she is pleased with the end result.

“There are a lot of hilarious family anecdotes in the book. History unfolds through the eyes of my parents – history overseas as well as recent history in Australia.”

Five Egyptian Pounds is available for purchase online at www.readings.com.au/ ($32.95) or as a kindle from www.amazon.com.au ($8.99).

For more information, email fiveegyptianpounds@gmail.com