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Across the Empty Quarter (Penguin Great Journeys #19)
Restless, gripped by an overwhelming wish to make a name for himself in a world ever more hemmed in by progress and 'civilization', Thesiger (1910-2003) embarked on his amazing journeys across Saudi Arabia's Empty Quarter to test himself and to show what could still be done. The result was a monument both to his resilience and to the Bedu who guided him and who emerge as t...more
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Never quite understood the romance of the deesrt, etc - hot, scorching winds, freezng nights, and sand, sand, sand. It's a puzzle the way so many young public school types, working in government departments like the Foreign Office seem to fall for it hook line and sinker though. There's obviously something deep in the psyche of the English ruling class - or at least the genuinely aristocratic ones - which draws them to sado-masochistic tests of endurance in the company of unfathomable men from m...more
My 2010 bookcrossing review:
Another excerpt from another book. This one is from the 1940s and is about an Englishman travelling about in the Arabian desert with a group of guides. It's never really made clear why they are doing this, although there are occasional hints to photographs and mapping, so maybe it's something to do with this? And maybe the lack of clarity is because this is just a collection of excerpts from a larger book. Compared to the other ones from this series I have read, this...more
Another excerpt from another book. This one is from the 1940s and is about an Englishman travelling about in the Arabian desert with a group of guides. It's never really made clear why they are doing this, although there are occasional hints to photographs and mapping, so maybe it's something to do with this? And maybe the lack of clarity is because this is just a collection of excerpts from a larger book. Compared to the other ones from this series I have read, this...more
An engaging and exciting tale, well told but quite obviously an extract from a larger work (Arabian Sands); it ends on a cliffhanger and refers frequently to people, places and events that have obviously been expanded upon in earlier parts of the original. I only knew Thesiger from his brief, gruff and hilarious appearance at the end of Newby's Walk in the Hundu Kush, where he comes across as a potential hard-man travel-wanker but this short piece shows a more thoughtful and interesting characte...more
Sacrilegious perhaps, but this little version suffices over the whapping and dragging Arabian Sands (though I still love that book).
A good Thesiger taster...
A good Thesiger taster...
English infidel traipses across Araby equipped with little more than his boy-scout glee. Amid the deprivations of the desert he learns the secret of the ascetic: abstinence makes the heart grow fonder.
May 21, 2013
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Sir Wilfred Patrick Thesiger, CBE, DSO, was a British explorer and travel writer born in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.
Thesiger was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford University where he took a third in history. Between 1930 and 1933, Thesiger represented Oxford at boxing and later (1933) became captain of the Oxford boxing team.
In 1930, Thesiger returned to Africa, havin...more
More about Wilfred Thesiger...
Thesiger was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford University where he took a third in history. Between 1930 and 1933, Thesiger represented Oxford at boxing and later (1933) became captain of the Oxford boxing team.
In 1930, Thesiger returned to Africa, havin...more
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