- Paperback: 464 pages
- Publisher: Flamingo; (Reissue) edition (4 Oct 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006372678
- ISBN-13: 978-0006372677
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 143,468 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
‘One of the few people who in our time could be put on the pedestal of the great explorers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.’
David Attenborough
‘He is unquestionably, one of the greatest travellers the British have ever produced, the last of our recognizable primitives. He also writes with much distinction and honesty.’
Geoffrey Moorhouse, Daily Telegraph
‘A treasure galleon built to the same specifications as Arabian Sands and The Marsh Arabs… it is the record of a man magnificiently and unabachedly out of step with his times’
E.S Turner London Review of Books
Product Description
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. In this autobiography, Wilfred Thesiger highlights the people who most profoundly influenced him and the events which enabled him to lead the life of his choice.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Thesiger was the last in the line of English explorers. Men such as Cook and Livingstone. He came from a priviledged background related to key establishment figures of the time. He was fascinated by tales he'd read as a child of big game hunting and exploration. His early life in Abyssinia had shown him a wealth of savage colour which he savoured throughout his life.
It is a book full of adventure...from his exploits killing lions ( he realised the shock this would cause his modern day readers) to his wartime adventures with Wingate (of Burma fame) and in the Western Desert with the SAS. It is a book almost devoid of women. Thesiger seemed to have no close associations with females save his mother. He craved meaningful, intense male companionship. He found it with a succession of young men. There is no reference at all to homosexuality. Thesiger gives the impression of not needing physical sex.
He cared nothing for the 'sanctity of life' something which shocks the liberal sensibility. The native people he so admired often took human life on an almost casual basis. He took many lives himself both animal and human.
The places Thesiger lived in and visited are changed beyond recognition now. The ready access to modern weapons has turned Darfur into a killing field. Ethiopia is a strife-torn wasteland compared to 60 years ago. The marshes of Iraq have disappeared and the Bedouin life is no more... the immense wealth of Saudi Arabia has seen to that. The wildlife so prevalent across Sudan and Abyssinia has almost gone. Thesiger expresses a little remorse at the part he played in that. In a few years in his twenties he killed more than 50 lions. Thesiger appreciated he had seen these areas 'just in time' before the ancient ways disappeared for ever. We owe him a debt of gratitude for giving us a glimpse of the colour and spectacle of that time.
It is a book full of adventure...from his exploits killing lions ( he realised the shock this would cause his modern day readers) to his wartime adventures with Wingate (of Burma fame) and in the Western Desert with the SAS. It is a book almost devoid of women. Thesiger seemed to have no close associations with females save his mother. He craved meaningful, intense male companionship. He found it with a succession of young men. There is no reference at all to homosexuality. Thesiger gives the impression of not needing physical sex.
He cared nothing for the 'sanctity of life' something which shocks the liberal sensibility. The native people he so admired often took human life on an almost casual basis. He took many lives himself both animal and human.
The places Thesiger lived in and visited are changed beyond recognition now. The ready access to modern weapons has turned Darfur into a killing field. Ethiopia is a strife-torn wasteland compared to 60 years ago. The marshes of Iraq have disappeared and the Bedouin life is no more... the immense wealth of Saudi Arabia has seen to that. The wildlife so prevalent across Sudan and Abyssinia has almost gone. Thesiger expresses a little remorse at the part he played in that. In a few years in his twenties he killed more than 50 lions. Thesiger appreciated he had seen these areas 'just in time' before the ancient ways disappeared for ever. We owe him a debt of gratitude for giving us a glimpse of the colour and spectacle of that time.
29 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Thesiger is without doubt one of the 20th Centuries greatest explorers. Never content with the luxury of the known he was always looking over the next hill, mountain or desert horizon. The perceptive, incisive comments on those he meets along the way, their customs and rituals make this and all his books a joy to read. All the more so when you remember that he was the first Western observer to record these again and again, from the deserts of Africa to the hills of the Hindu Kush.
Some years ago I was fortunate to meet this great author and explorer in his home - a memory I will treasure for the rest of my life. His every sentence littered with words of wisdom interspersed with tales of a different world.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Wilfred Thesiger grew up in Absynnia and was one of the Colonial 'sons of the Empire. His book captures the wildness of the landscape, the traditions of indigenous peoples untouched by the modern world, the lifestyle of the colonial classe's and life in the British Army in the 20th Century.
A unique book.
A unique book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
"And, in so many of my travels, to have been there just in time."
Wilfred Thesiger was born in Addis Ababa, Abyssina (Ethiopia) in 1910, the son of the first British Ambassador to the country. Read more
Published 15 months ago by John P. Jones III
Such a find!
I took a chance on buying this book, I had never heard of Thesiger but the book was only [...]!
From the very first page i was entranced by Thesigers life story, i found... Read more
From the very first page i was entranced by Thesigers life story, i found... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Mr. Smeaton
A great, outspoken explorer.
The life of this man was truly amazing and he is indeed as some of the others have commented the last of a generation of explorers. Read more
Published 19 months ago by A. S. Edwards
Totally hooked
I had never heard of Wilfred Thesiger but bought the book because I am interested in social history. I am now hooked on the author and can't wait to read his other books. Read more
Published on 14 Feb 2010 by Mrs. P. Burges
Read it!
I'm into travel and therefore travel books, I've read Mr Thesigers book about his travels in the Empty Quarter of Oman and having been there he brought back many memories for... Read more
Published on 15 Dec 2009 by D. F. Hockin
Quite simply - brilliant
Written by a man who 'lived' - this book is for people who are able to see beyond the world they live in. Read more
Published on 3 Aug 2001 by Caroline Teunissen
The book of my choice
Thesiger writes candidly of times and places certainly now all but lost to the 20th Century. An inspirational life that any true closet or real life explorer should have and... Read more
Published on 16 Sep 1999
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