Editing Elizabeth David (section)

===France, Greece, Egypt and India===
[[File:Norman Douglas.jpg|thumb|left|upright|alt=outdoor photograph of elderly man sitting at a table; he has white hair, and is clean shaven|[[Norman Douglas]], David's mentor from 1938]]

After her return to London in early 1937, David recognised that she was not going to be a success on the stage, and abandoned thoughts of a theatrical career.  Later in the year she took a post as a junior assistant at the fashion [[house of Worth]], where elegant young women from upper-class backgrounds were sought after as recruits.<ref>Chaney, p. 88</ref> She found the subservience of retail work irksome, and resigned in early 1938.<ref>Cooper, p. 56</ref> Over the next few months she spent time holidaying in the south of France and on [[Corsica]], where she was greatly taken with the outgoing nature of the people she stayed with and the simple excellence of their food.<ref>Cooper, p. 57</ref> After returning to London, and disenchanted with life there, she joined Cowan in buying a small boat—a [[yawl]] with an engine—with the intention of sailing it to Greece.<ref>Cooper, p. 60</ref> They crossed the Channel in July 1939 and navigated the boat through the canal system of France to the Mediterranean coast.<ref name=dnb/>

The outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 halted their progress. After stopping briefly at [[Marseille]] they sailed on to [[Antibes]], where they remained for more than six months, unable to gain permission to leave.<ref>Cooper, pp. 68 and 70</ref> There David met and became greatly influenced by the ageing writer [[Norman Douglas]], about whom she later wrote extensively.{{#tag:ref|Two of her essays about him, "Have It Your Way" and "If You Care to Eat Shark", are included in ''An Omelette and a Glass of Wine'' (1984).<ref>David (1986), pp. 120–124 and 139–143</ref>|group=n}} He inspired her love of the Mediterranean, encouraged her interest in good food, and taught her to "search out the best, insist on it, and reject all that was bogus and second-rate".<ref>Cooper, p. 67</ref> Cooper describes him as David's most important mentor.<ref name=dnb/>

David and Cowan finally left Antibes in May 1940, sailing to Corsica and then towards [[Sicily]]. They had reached the [[Strait of Messina]] when Italy entered the war on 10 June.<ref name=dnb>Cooper, Artemis. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/50960 "David, Elizabeth (1913–1992)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, online edition, May 2011. Retrieved 16 October 2017 {{ODNBsub}}</ref> They were suspected of spying and were interned. After 19 days in custody in various parts of Italy, they were allowed to cross the border into [[Yugoslavia]], which at that point remained neutral and non-combatant.<ref>Chaney, p. 132; and Tomasevich, p. 197</ref> They had lost almost everything they owned—the boat, money, manuscripts, notebooks, and David's cherished collection of recipes.<ref>Cooper, p. 76</ref> With the help of the British Consul in [[Zagreb]], they crossed into Greece, and arrived in Athens in July 1940.<ref>Cooper, p. 77</ref> By this time, David was no longer in love with her partner but remained with him from necessity. Cowan found a job teaching English on the island of [[Syros]], where David learnt to cook with the fresh ingredients available locally. When the Germans invaded Greece in April 1941, the couple managed to leave on a civilian convoy to Egypt.<ref>Cooper, pp. 78–83</ref>

Able to speak excellent French and good German, David secured a job in the naval [[cipher]] office in [[Alexandria]].<ref>Cooper, p. 85</ref> She was quickly rescued from temporary refugee accommodation, having met an old English friend who had an "absurdly grandiose" flat in the city and invited her to keep house for him.<ref>David (2001), p. 65</ref> She and Cowan amicably went their separate ways, and she moved into the grand flat.<ref>Cooper, pp. 86–87</ref> She engaged a cook, Kyriacou, a Greek refugee, whose eccentricities (sketched in a chapter of ''[[Elizabeth David bibliography#Is There a Nutmeg in the House? (2000)|Is There a Nutmeg in the House?]]'') did not prevent him from producing magnificent food: "The flavour of that octopus stew, the rich wine dark sauce and the aroma of mountain herbs was something not easily forgotten."<ref>David (2001), p. 167</ref> In 1942 she caught an infection that affected her feet. She spent some weeks in hospital and felt obliged to give up her job in the cipher office.<ref>Cooper, p. 94</ref> She then moved to Cairo, where she was asked to set up and run a reference library for the British [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Information]]. The library was open to everyone and was much in demand by journalists and other writers. Her circle of friends in this period included [[Alan Moorehead]], [[Freya Stark]], [[Bernard Spencer]], [[Patrick Kinross]], [[Olivia Manning]] and [[Lawrence Durrell]].<ref>Cooper, pp. 99 and 101</ref> At her tiny flat in the city, she employed Suleiman, a Sudanese ''suffragi'' (a cook-housekeeper). She recalled:
{{blockquote|Suleiman performed minor miracles with two Primus stoves and an oven which was little more than a tin box perched on top of them. His soufflés were never less than successful.&nbsp;... For three or four years I lived mainly on rather rough but highly flavoured colourful shining vegetable dishes, lentil or fresh tomato soups, delicious spiced pilaffs, lamb kebabs grilled over charcoal, salads with cool mint-flavoured yoghurt dressings, the Egyptian ''[[fellahin]]'' dish of black beans with olive oil and lemon and hard-boiled eggs—these things were not only attractive but also cheap.<ref>David (2001), p. 5; and (1986), p. 23</ref>}}

Cooper comments on this period of David's life, "Pictures of her at the time show a quintessential librarian, dressed in a dark cardigan over a white shirt with a prim little collar buttoned up to the neck: but at night, dressed in exotic spangled caftans, she was a different creature: drinking at Hedjaki's bar, eating at the P'tit Coin de France, dancing on the roof of the Continental and then going on to Madame Badia's nightclub or the glamorous Auberge des Pyramides."<ref>Cooper, Artemis. "Elizabeth, a rebel in the kitchen", ''The Times'', 18 November 2000, p. 16</ref> In her years in Cairo, David had a number of affairs. She enjoyed them for what they were, but only once fell in love. That was with a young officer, Peter Laing, but the relationship came to an end when he was seriously wounded and returned to his native Canada.<ref>Cooper, pp. 95–96</ref> Several other of her young men fell in love with her; one of them was [[Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant-Colonel]] Anthony David (1911–1967). By now aged thirty, she weighed the advantages and disadvantages of remaining unmarried until such time as the ideal husband might appear, and with considerable misgivings she finally accepted Tony David's proposal of marriage.<ref>Cooper, p. 112</ref>

The couple were married in Cairo on 30 August 1944.<ref name=dnb/>  Within a year, Tony David was posted to India. His wife followed him there in January 1946, but she found life as the wife of an officer of the [[British Raj]] tedious, the social life dull, and the food generally "frustrating".<ref>Cooper, p. 120</ref> Later in life she came to appreciate the cuisine more, and wrote about a few Indian dishes and recipes in her articles and books.<ref>Chaney, p. 198</ref> In June 1946, she suffered severe [[sinusitis]] and was told by her doctors that the condition would persist if she remained in the summer heat of [[New Delhi|Delhi]]. Instead, she was advised to go back to England. She did so; Cooper observes, "She had been away from England for six years, and in that time she, and England, had changed beyond recognition."<ref>Cooper, p. 124</ref>