The Life of My ChoiceWilfred Thesiger is the last of the great British eccentric explorers, a legendary figure, renowned for his travels through some of the most inaccessible places on earth. As a child in Abyssinia he watched the victorious armies of Ras Tafari returning from hand-to-hand battle, their prisoners in chains; at the age of twenty-three 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 widely acclaimed books, 'Arabian Sands' and 'The Marsh Arabs' tell of his two famous sojourns in the Empty Quarter and the Marshes of southern Iraq. But Thesiger's true character and motives have until now remained an enigma. In this, his autobiography, he highlights the people who most profoundly influenced him and the events which enabled him to lead the life of his choice. "One of the very few people who in our time could be put on the pedestal of the great explorers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries." "A treasure galleon built to the same specifications as 'Arabian Sands' and 'The Marsh Arabs' ... it is the record of a man magnificently and unabashedly out of step with his times." "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." |
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... Sultan and spent the greater part of a day with him , during which time the Sultan had questioned him at length about my motives for making this journey . He had told Ali Wali that seven years earlier he had met three Europeans at Galle ...
... Sultan of Aussa . When that Sultan had died , his sons fought among themselves until Yaio mastered the others . Yaio then attacked Ras Yemer's troops at Tendaho and inflicted heavy casualties , but was eventually betrayed , captured ...
... Sultan of Tajura had asked to meet me , so at five o'clock I came back to the commandant's house . The Sultan , a good - looking young man in an immaculate white robe and closely wound white turban , had a quiet - spoken dignity ...
Contents
List of Maps | 7 |
Introduction | 15 |
Arrival in Addis Ababa | 23 |
Copyright | |
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