Wilfred Thesiger Books

Wifred Thesiger describes his journeys in the Empty Quarter and the Arabian Peninula during the late forties. At that time few Europeans travelled in those areas and occasionally their presence was not welcome. From these journeys he emerged with a great respect for the Bedu who were his travelling companions. His writing style is masterly as he describes his journeys in a plain language which is at the same time eloquent. He shows a great understanding of and a fondness for the Bedu people and their now vanished way of life. Theiseger is also a photographer of exceptional ability and this volume contains a large number of the photographs he took on his expeditions. These and the text create a stunning picture of the land and its peoples. The author is considered the last of the great explorers and this book is an exquisite record charting his memorable adventures with travelling companions bin Kabina and bin Ghabaisha across the Arabian Empty Quarter. He was a skilled photographer and was unique among travel writers of the past in having had the opportunity to take photographs that complement his formidable writing.

During the years he spent among the Marsh Arabs of southern Iraq-long before they were almost completely wiped out by Saddam Hussein-Wilfred Thesiger came to understand, admire, and share a way of life that had endured for many centuries. Traveling from village to village by canoe, he won acceptance by dispensing medicine and treating the sick. In this account of a nearly lost civilization, he pays tribute to the hospitality, loyalty, courage, and endurance of the people, and describes their impressive reed houses, the waterways and lakes teeming with wildlife, the herding of buffalo and hunting of wild boar, moments of tragedy, and moments of pure comedy in vivid, engaging detail.

Story of five years of travel with the nomad Arabs in the unknown deserts of Southern Arabia.

Wilfred Thesiger is the last of the great British eccentric explorers, renowned for his travels through some of the most inaccessible places on earth. As a child in Abyssinia he watched the glorious armies of Ras Tafari returning from hand-to-hand battle, their prisoners in chains; at the age of 23 he made his first expedition into the country of the Danakil, a murderous race among whom a man's status in the tribe depended on the number of men he had killed and castrated. His books, Arabian Sands and The Marsh Arabs, tell of his two sojourns in the Empty Quarter and the Marshes of Southern Iraq.

Focusing on the groundbreaking journeys of a renowned explorer, this book delves into his formative expeditions that shaped his legacy. It highlights the challenges faced and the discoveries made during these pivotal adventures, showcasing his impact on exploration and the natural world. Through vivid storytelling, readers gain insight into the character and motivations of a man who has redefined the limits of human exploration.

Wilfred Thesiger, this century's greatest living explorer, recalls his travels among the mountain ranges of Asia.

Following on from the author's autobiography, The Life of My Choice, this book provides a record of Thesiger's 30 years in Kenya. Since his first visit to Kenya in 1960, Thesiger has made a series of long journeys on foot with camels to Lake Turkana, Marsabit and other remote areas.

Paperback with a lightly shelfworn cover. A few light marks on the inside covers. Very good condition; binding is sound with clear text and images. Black and white photography by Wilfred Thesiger. CM

An anthology of writings and photographs celebrating the outstanding contribution of one of the country's most distinguished and enduring travel writers, and the century's greatest living explorer. At the age of twenty-three, three years after attending the coronation of Haile Selassie, Thesiger made his first expedition into the country of the murderous Danakil tribe. Since then he has traversed the Empty Quarter twice, spending five years among the Bedu, followed by several years living as no Westerner had in the strange world of the Marshmen of Iraq. Later he made many mountain journeys in the awesome ranges of the Karakorams, the Hindu Kush, Ladakh and Chitral. After these varied and often dangerous adventures among fast-disappearing cultures, Thesiger settled down to spend over twenty years living mostly among the pastoral Samburu in Northern Kenya, until 1994 when he finally returned to England permanently. These experiences have, over the years, provided rich material for writings which express a romantic but austere vision, and for exquisite photographs which capture the spirit of a bygone era. This book contains extracts from the eight books Thesiger published to great acclaim between 1959 and 1998, most notably 'Arabian Sands', 'Marsh Arabs' and 'The Life of My Choice'.