Tariqy (My Path: The Tears of Dreams, Struggles and Isolation from the Village to the Cabinet) Vol. 1 by Kamal El-Ganzouri, Cairo: Shorouk Publishing House. 2013.

Kamal El-Ganzouri, Egyptian prime minister under Hosni Mubarak and the Supreme Council of the Armed Force, has released the first part of his memoires.

He reflects on his childhood in the Egyptian countryside, through his education and studies in the United States, and the posts he held before he became prime minister in 1996.

El-Ganzouri speaks for the first time of the challenges he faced as Mubarak's prime minister and of the "centres of power" in the state bureaucracy that opposed him.

He also describes the social challenges he faced during his three-year term until Mubarak sacked him in 1999.

El-Ganzouri also reveals the workings of governmental institutions and the secrets of his meetings with US presidents George H. Bush and Bill Clinton, and British prime minister Tony Blair.

Kamal El-Ganzouri, 80, was prime minister from 1996 until 1999. He remained in the shadows after he was removed from his post. He returned to the spotlight again after the January 2011 uprising when the military council appointed him prime minister in November 2011 to succeed Essam Sharaf. He remained in office until 2 August 2012.