A Diamond in the Desert: Behind the Scenes in the World's Richest City

by Jo Tatchell

Arabia in the 1960s - still a land of desert, nomadic tribes, falcons and gazelles. And Abu Dhabi, perched on the Gulf Coast, was a poor fishing community. Barely forty years on, it is the richest city on earth, with major stakes in Western economies. And if the extraordinarily ambitious plans for the capital of the United Arab Emirates succeed, its future impact will be global. Jo Tatchell's family arrived in Abu Dhabi in 1974 when there were only a few thousand inhabitants. She left as a young adult in the nineties, choosing personal freedom over a life of comfort and ease. But in recent years, as Abu Dhabi has become ever more significant on the world stage, she has returned to get behind the headlines and see how the city is changing for herself. In this illuminating portrait, she shows Abu Dhabi past and present through the eyes of its people - from sheikhs to Indian immigrants, housewives to ex-pats - as well as her own. Tales of the Bedus' traditional hospitality and of expeditions into the desert mingle with accounts of hair-raising decadence and double standards, as she reveals a society and culture almost derailed by sudden, extreme wealth. And yet, as she discovers, Abu Dhabi is about to change again. Its rulers have a grand vision of a cultural bridge between Islam and the West, which might just transform our world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Middle East, Travel, History

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Brenda]

If you've ever been to, lived in, are considering living in or simply want to know more about the UAE and more specifically its capital - Abu Dhabi - you must read this book. After spending almost a year in AD, I was both excited and relieved to find a book that mirrored my conflicting sentiments about that place almost exactly. It is definitely a clear and intriguing account of the opposites and hidden agendas / hopes that encapsulate the somewhat deceptive wealth and ambition of Abu Dhabi. I would say that all in all the message tries to be hopeful what with talk of openness and "middle-Islam" and breaking free of the desperate, subsistence-based desert life, but more importantly than that, it's realistic and honest about the implications of the sometimes obvious, sometimes well-hidden, hypocrisy of the UAE and its face to the world.

[Laura Pugh]

An interesting insight into one woman's experience of growing up in Abu Dhabi, as the daughter of a foreign national, and returning in the 21st century to find a city changed beyond recognition.

The book cuts between Jo Tatchell's past experiences as a child/young woman and her present-day hunt for information about those times in Abu Dhabi's disorganised archives. The narrative entwines factual historical information with personal experiences and tales passed only by word of mouth. It's informative, at times surprising, and generally a very engaging way to learn about a unique culture that can be difficult for outsiders to experience or understand.

[Lori]

Very interesting look at the history of Abu Dhabi, progress and development, and a peek into the murky enigmatic world of the locals. Writing is smart, clear, and concise and Tatchell presents a balanced view of AD. Part of the interest of the book is recognizing landmarks and familiar situations she writes about. A couple of disturbing stories about bizarre parties and a boating accident, all of which add to the expat feeling of never being able to understand what really goes on here (and maybe not wanting to know the truth). Written in 2009, it’s interesting to read about the status of development and see how much has progressed and changed since then. Also fascinating to hear a local businessman give his take on why AD is focusing on cultural development more than science and technology. Certainly lots of food for thought where the role of women and artistic expression are concerned. Absolutely recommend it for anyone living here. One of those books I want to push on all my friends so we can discuss.

[Karen]

This was a great introduction for me about the City of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Jo Tatchell grew up in Abu Dhabi in the 70s and 80s when the country was just starting to grow. Her father managed the British company Spinneys, that served the needs of the oil prospectors. Jo went back to Abu Dhabi when she heard that the government wanted to build a national art museum, like the Guggenheim or the Louvre.

What the author saw astounded her. Abu Dhabi had gone from a small desert town to a huge modern city. The city was built on oil money, and now, 40 years later they want to have culture too. Yet the women aren't free. They can work only if their father or husband give permission (because women are not allowed to have contact with men outside of relatives). The government strictly censors the newspapers and media. No one is allowed to criticize the government.

[Lindsey]

Really enjoyed this. A great perspective from someone who spent part of her childhood in Abu Dhabi in the 70's, and has been there on and off since. The book was prompted by all the changes noted during her last trip there, which she made after being absent for about 10 years. Very current, very relevant.

[Kristien]

Must read for anyone living in the UAE and wanting to get under the skin of first impression. So much is unsaid or understood (not by the majority of expats though) and then there is this eye opener with its unique perspective of journalist and early resident of the history. So many modern mysteries explained by history, loved it!

[Mary Ellen]

This book was a decent read if you are interested in the history of Abu Dhabi. Some of the bits are negative, some positive. I learned a great deal from reading about the place I live. It helped me to make sense of many things.

[Becky Durstenfeld]

This is a very interesting book. It is very personal and the author is very honest in sharing her experiences growing up in Abu Dhabi and then returning there many years later and what she thought of all the changes. We learn quite a lot about the history and culture of the city. I was in Abu Dhabi for one day while on a cruise Jan. 2020 and know someone who lives there, so was very interested in reading this book. The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 was because every once in a while I had trouble following just what she said (I'd need to re-read a few sentences) and I had trouble keeping track of all the people she mentioned after the first time.

[Darla Ebert]

It's always a jolt to the consciousness of anyone living outside of a country such as Dubai. I do not mind reading about their customs, traditions, culture and religion, in fact these are fascinating. But I find the lives of Mid-Easterners are, by and large, miserable. Reading about the desert is compelling but the people living there are (unless extravagantly wealth) invisible and seemingly live their lives anonymously. Especially the women. This is UN-conscionable and stirs up very negative feelings in the average reader not held in obeisance to the regime of the religion of these unfortunate people.

[Evelyn Wong 18]

A fascinating first-person account of Abu Dhabi's miraculous rise from desert populated by hardy nomads to luxurious SUV -driving urbanites whose lives are cushioned by a base of mostly South Asian foreign workers. The author neither idealizes nor unduly criticizes Abu Dhabi, and is skilled at unveiling it's complexities and contradictions. I didn't love the last chapter - I found it a little condescending and incoherent - but the rest of the book is great.

[Willis]

More of a personal memoir of her time living in Abu Dhabi and different experiences she has when she returns. You get an incomplete sense of the history of the area and I wish there would have been more of that and less on the personal stories.

[Colleen]

This was an enjoyable way to skim some cultural topography (and basic history) of Abu Dhabi via anecdotes and personal memoir. Some of it reads a little “Crazy Rich Asians” with Arabs (granted that this book existed years before the novel-cum-movie.)

[Vicente Ramirez]

Lots of interesting facts

The book is well written and researched. This 2009 edition is 11years old. It will be extremely interesting to read an updated edition covering the accomplishments and changes attained since it's publication.

[Shelley]

Interesting book about history of Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi.

[Louise]

Jo Tatchell is uniquely qualified to write this book. She not only straddles two cultures, but also two eras in Abu Dhabi. Her father's work brought this British family there in the 1970's and 1980's. In her young years she experienced an Abu Dhabi way of life that had more in common with its culture 1000 years ago than that of today.

The world's thirst for oil has created a wealth and population explosion in this emirate. In the past 40 years the native population has become dwarfed in numbers by foreigners who are needed to do the work be it sophisticated engineering or physical labor. Tatchell, returning after living away for a number of years, visits old friends and friends of her parents. Through her conversations with them you get a feel for how this nation has been transformed in a very short time.

Tatchell also shows the traditional culture that lives behind the shiny modern offices and plush homes. Women need their father's approval to enter into a career. Despite the plan to be a world cultural center, censorship is accepted. There is a system of labor that allows virtually no mobility for foreign unskilled labor. It does not appear to have a modern legal system.

While this book is not a history, there is a lot of history considering how little is available for the general reader. One recurring thread, Tatchell's quest for back newspaper editions, shows the difficulty of finding Abu Dhabi's past and the low priority placed on it. In the early twentieth century, power struggles resulted in royal assassinations. This, and fresh memories of living off the land are not the images Abu Dhabi wishes to promote or that individuals want to remember.

Written in an engaging prose style, this book should appeal to a wide audience. While it is not a tour guide, is an excellent introduction for anyone who will be touring or living/working in Abu Dhabi.

[Chris]

When I saw this book and where it was about (Abu Dhabi, UAE) I was excited. Further delving made me even more excited. It seemed myself and the author, Jo Tatchell, had quite a bit in common. Jo was born in 1971. I was born in 1970. She moved to Abu Dhabi around 1975. I moved to Abu Dhabi in 1980. Jo went to the local English speaking school, Al Khubairat. I also went to Al Khubairat. And we both went to boarding school. We may even have met whilst at school in Abu Dhabi and not known it!

Ever since leaving Abu Dhabi I have longed to go back; it brings back so many good memories for me. Times when my mother and father were alive and very much in their prime (Dad was the reason we moved there in the beginning and mum and I often discussed going back). Since I have never had the opportunity to return I was intrigued to find out how much it had changed since the 80s. I bought this book hoping to find out. And alas, I finished the book disappointed.

The back cover claims to be a guide about Abu Dhabi, and initially it is. I smiled inwardly when Jo mentioned certain familiar areas and customs, and felt my eyebrows raising when she narrated changes I had not know about. But this book in the main was quite boring for me. I felt myself daydreaming in many of the chapters and struggled to finish it. The worst part of all was the final chapter; twenty odd pages mainly talking about art! If I had wanted to read a book about Middle Eastern art I would have bought a book about such. A few pages discussing the subject would have been sufficient but this droned on and on and I felt like I was swimming through treacle with it. The ending too was strange and I shook my head such was the disbelief. This is such a shame because the book had a lot of potential but just drifted erratically at times and I was hoping for so much more.

[Elisabeth Khan]

In the timeline of Abu Dhabi history, this book is a follow-up to M.A. Fahim's excellent eyewitness account, "From Rags to Riches."
Author Jo Tatchell revisits the country where she had arrived as a child in 1974 and spent her formative years. She is in an excellent place to compare the "then" and the "now" (meaning circa 2008), having absorbed a lot of fascinating information about the early days of the oil boom from her father, who managed Spinneys, the first supermarket catering to expats. She meets with some prominent locals and old-timers who have made the capital their permanent home; they are happy to reminisce. Her efforts at gaining access to old newspapers in the National Archives, however, are somewhat less successful (partly due to the digitization process which is underway).

Jo Tatchell is an excellent writer and I really enjoyed the book. Her observations are spot on and her background information appears well researched and quite accurate. Part memoir and part travelogue, with a bit of history thrown in, the book sometimes left me hungry for "more," which is a compliment as well as a complaint.

In the years since the book came out (2009) a lot has happened in the United Arab Emirates. There was the global economic crisis, which hit the country late, but hard, followed by an ongoing recovery. The emirate of Abu Dhabi has proven itself to be smart and resilient in the face of this adversity, opting to become the cultural capital of the area. Here's room for a sequel.

[Heather]

The author provides a unique view of Abu Dhabi's development from her own perspective, as a Brit having spent many years there growing up while her father managed a major grocery chain, and from that of her family's friends and contacts who remained there. She ties stories from 'early' Abu Dhabi in with the current reality and pace of change. She also tries to predict, having observed this new society spring from quite different historical origins, where it will go next and where it needs to go to be sustainable.

I was especially interested in the thread she wove throughout of her efforts to use an elusive newspaper archive. She was directed to a different repository by practically every person she asked. When she finally found it, or at least part of it, she was told at first that she couldn't use it. Then when she managed to work her way in, she wasn't sure there was much substance to be found there, given the limits placed on the press.

[Janette]

I read this book during a first time trip to Abu Dhabi. I completely enjoyed the story and the storytelling. It enriched my visit immensely with local insights into a city that has both an impressive and bewildering history to my Western ways. The book captures colorful insights into the culture as the author revisits her childhood growing up there. Because of this book, my tourist visits to coastline and desert sands had a depth of appreciation for my surroundings that would otherwise have been missing. My visit opened my eyes to may lack of awareness to an extraordinarily significant part of the world and people who live there. I would recommend this book as a travel book and equally as significant for the information it provides about the United Arab Emirates, a region worth understanding for many reasons.

[Rachel]

I am slow to read nonfiction, but this book held my attention the entire time. Tatchell has a gift for creating suspense even in a memoir. Of course it helps that I have lived here for many years. It was like reading gossip about old acquaintances. Occasional inaccuracies grated. For example, a burka in the UAE is not a cloth face covering, but a shiny mask that looks like it is made of metal (but is actually a weird paper or leather thing). I'm surprised the author was able to get away with the amount of scandal included in this book. I have not checked to see if this book is sold in stores here.

[John]

I began this book with the audio edition, but switched to print as I just wasn't getting into the story, even though the narrator was doing a pretty good job of reading the material. Doing that enabled me to skim more easily, though the material never became much more interesting.

Two stars would be unfair, as it's a well written book, that tells the intended story. Unfortunately, four stars would indicate the book is more interesting than I found it. Perhaps, the problem was that she spent so much time dealing with the expat life, followed by discussions with Emaratis, that there's virtually no mention of the nation's biggest industry: tourism.

[Christy]

It's a good read for someone living in or coming to live in AD. I wonder if I would have learned more if I had read it when I came, or if I would have just read some of the passages (think panther) and found them impossible. Now having been here, I can see it. Tatchell provides a perspective that most expats simply can't get: she has the history and the family background that lets her speak with the Emiratis. I found it a valuable read thought not really a gripping one.

[Jaclynn (JackieReadsAlot)]

Very informative but not dry. The author includes so many personal memories and personal touches to the story, it's a history lesson and a bit of a memoir rolled into one. I am going to the UAE for the first time in a few weeks and wanted to learn more about the people, their history and the development of this amazing city. This book provides all that and positive and negative insights from an outsiders perspective.

[Ruppert Baird]

This book, along with 'From Rags to Riches: A Story of Abu Dhabi' by Mohammed Al-Fahim, were my introduction into the recent history of Abu Dhabi, and the United Arab Emirates. It was incredible to read history from two different points of view.

In the end, the 2 books eased me into five years of living and working in the UAE and were instrumental in my success there.

[Melissa Henderson]

For anyone who's visited the UAE, this book offers an interesting, first-hand historical perspective of the area before the thriving metropolis and the societal problems that come along with newfound privilege.

[George Huner]

I learned a lot about Abu Dhabi from this book, a place I was barely aware of before my son and his wife moved there. A place of immense contrast and change. I hope to visit sometime in the next year.

[Cyndi]

I found this book extremely interesting. It gave another perspective on several questions I've had about the area and it's history.

[Joan]

A history of Abu Dhabi- a commercialized (and luxurious) city in the Arab Emirates. Jo Tatchell explores the "story behind the headlines," since she lived there.

[Krystyn]

fascinating.

[Ann]

A good book on Abu Dhabi. A bit of history and a bit of culture. Some parts seemed a bit far fetched to me but you never know here.