Arabian Sands: The Great Classic of Desert Literature by Wilfred Thesiger (1984-04-19) - Hardcover

Thesiger, Wilfred

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670130052 ISBN 13: 9780670130054

Publisher: The Viking Press, 1984

Synopsis

Arabian Sands has never been out of print since it was first published, to great critical acclaim, in 1959. This new edition contains all the original photographs. With this book Wilfred Thesiger took his place among the few great Arabian travellers - not only as an explorer but as a writer. Doughty, Lawrence, Bertram Thomas and St John Philby preceded him but, as St John Philby himself said, 'The crowning touches have been placed on this exploratory activity in Arabia by Wilfred Thesiger, who is probably the greatest of all the explorers...' Arabian Sands covers the five years ending in 1950 which, with the exception of brief interruptions only, Thesiger spent in and around the Empty Quarter, the half million square miles of one of the cruellest deserts of the world. Before him, no other traveller, European or Arab - apart from the Bedu who live there - had twice dared to cross those empty wastes. Travelling without European companions and living as an Arab, Thesiger's experience and

About this title

About the Author

Wilfred Thesiger (1910-2003) was a British explorer and travel writer. He was born at Addis Ababa, Abyssinia (now Ethiopia). Educated at Eton and Oxford, he worked in the Sudan Political Service and and later, for a year, as a Political Officer for the Ethiopian Emperor, Haile Selassie. He is best known for two travel books: Arabian Sands (1959) and The Marsh Arabs (1964).
 
Rory Stewart (introducer) has written for the New York Times Magazine, Granta, and the London Review of Books, and is the author of The Places In Between and The Prince of the Marshes. A former fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire by the British government for services in Iraq.

Review

"Following worthily in the tradition of Burton, Lawrence, Philby and Thomas, ["Arabian Sands"] is, very likely, the book about Arabia to end all books about Arabia." -"The Daily Telegraph", London "The narrative is vividly written, with a thousand little anecdotes and touches which bring back to any who have seen these countries every scene with the colour of real life." -"The Sunday Times", London

About this edition

• Publisher: The Viking Press
• Publication date: 1984
• ISBN 10: 0670130052
• ISBN 13: 9780670130054
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 347