London, 1984, 2nd UK edition. 326 pp, 69 b/w photos, 9 maps. Hardcover with dust jacket. Fine condition.
Thesiger is one of the most remarkable writers and explorers of this century. He traveled through the Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia with the Bedu, by camel, for five years, something no westerner has done before or since. His writing of the beauty of the desert and the hard life of the Bedu is rich and powerful, and you are sure to be moved by it.
With this book Wilfred Thesiger took his place among the few great Arabian travelers - not only as an explorer, but as a writer. 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 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 knowledge of the desert life are unique - and will remain so, for the world he describes has vanished, succumbing to the invasion of technicians in search of oil. Thesiger's account of the Arabian Sands and its people, its tribal warfare and ancient history, its daily life and landscape is widely hailed as a classic of Arabian travel literature. Wilfred Thesiger charts the time he spent living with the Bedu, including his legendary traverses of the Empty Quarter.
Wilfred Thesiger is the last of the great British eccentric explorers, a legendary figure renowned for his travels though some of the most inaccessible places on earth. Arabian Sands was his widely acclaimed first book and is recognized as one of the great travel classics. His prose and photographs capture the spirit of the proud tribespeople who became his friends and the harsh landscape he inhabited with them in a way very few westerners have.
