The brush and the pen Rania Khallaf enjoys a chat and a bowl of soup with Georges Bahgory

"I was curled up in a ball inside my mother's belly. I hugged my legs to my belly. My head was against my knees. My hand was lost somewhere amid my guts." Thus Georges Bahgory begins his new autobiography published last week by the AUC Press.

Renowned as a caricaturist, Bahgory has mastered several other arts: he is a painter, sculptor and novelist. His latest book is an adaptation of Iqonet Faltas, or Faltas's Icon, published in Arabic in 2000 by Sharqiyat. Bahgory's Words and Paintings is short, only 100 pages, running to 13 chapters on the artist's life and some characters who influenced his development as a distinctive Coptic artist.

Born in Luxor, Bahgory studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Zamalek and the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. Over the last half a century his works have been exhibited in France, Egypt, the United Kingdom, Iraq, Jordan, Tunisia and Italy.

"The book features my autobiography as a Coptic artist. It is a true tale of a Coptic family in modern times. It is not just recalling my memories as a child and teenager in Egypt; the book is also loaded with the harsh sarcasm of my uncle, my two brothers, and my step mother, under whom I suffered a lot.