Arabian Sands (Penguin Classics)
1 journaler for this copy...
It is not unfitting that Rory Stewart wrote the introduction to my copy of Thesiger’s first and widely celebrated novel.
Stewart gained fame by foolishly walking some 6000 miles across Iran, Afghanistan and a few South Asian countries, when Afghanistan had just been overrun by the US, after which he became deputy governor for the American backed government in a province in Iraq.
Thesiger, of course, had a reputation of being the last of the great explorers.
Yet, Stewart points out that Thesiger, rather than the last Victorian, he was perhaps closer to being the first hippie on the overland trail, as, essentially, Thesiger travelled for the sake of travel, of discovery.
The collection of stories is superb, detailing a series of overland treks, by camel, in the south of the Arabian peninsula in the late 1940s. Thesiger documents, suffers, enjoys, struggles, fully aware that the life he is experiencing will soon disappear, the first western oil explorers having arrived on the edge of the peninsula. Even if the peninsula is still a hotbed of tribal warfare, this almost costing the author his life.
Perhaps one thing worth noting is how common slavery still was on the peninsula, not even 70 years ago. Also, Dubai and Abu Dhabi are still at war and are tiny villages.
Stewart gained fame by foolishly walking some 6000 miles across Iran, Afghanistan and a few South Asian countries, when Afghanistan had just been overrun by the US, after which he became deputy governor for the American backed government in a province in Iraq.
Thesiger, of course, had a reputation of being the last of the great explorers.
Yet, Stewart points out that Thesiger, rather than the last Victorian, he was perhaps closer to being the first hippie on the overland trail, as, essentially, Thesiger travelled for the sake of travel, of discovery.
The collection of stories is superb, detailing a series of overland treks, by camel, in the south of the Arabian peninsula in the late 1940s. Thesiger documents, suffers, enjoys, struggles, fully aware that the life he is experiencing will soon disappear, the first western oil explorers having arrived on the edge of the peninsula. Even if the peninsula is still a hotbed of tribal warfare, this almost costing the author his life.
Perhaps one thing worth noting is how common slavery still was on the peninsula, not even 70 years ago. Also, Dubai and Abu Dhabi are still at war and are tiny villages.
