Review: The life of my choice
Editorial Review - Kirkus ReviewsThe highly entertaining memoirs of a British adventurer and explorer. Thesiger's buoyant, engrossing life is a page from the annals of the heyday of British Empire. Heroic stanzas from Kipling preface his account of a life born into adventure in Abyssinia (now Ethiopia), where the author's father served as British Minister. Even later education at Eton and Oxford couldn't erase the ""craving for barbaric splendor"" fostered by these early years, and Thesinger's adult life--recorded here in every eccentric detail--became a series of happy returns to northern Africa in the service of England and his own romantic imagination. Inspired by the colonial triumphs of T.E. Lawrence, Thesiger served as a young man in the Sudan military, playing low-level generalissimo to various ""exotic"" local tribes. The book's most dramatic section, however, concerns the war years and Abyssinian resistance to Italian occupation. There is more bluff than bang to Thesiger's battle accounts, but his memory of Churchill's inspiring broadcasts to the front and his boast that he fired the first shot in the ""Italian campaign"" lend a thrilling dash of authenticity to his report. The major subplot here concerns Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie. Thesiger met Selassie as a child, and the latter's rule--ended by a Marxist coup in 1975--symbolizes for the author a tragic trajectory. The book's final pages are thus a eulogy for both a monarchical ""golden age"" and for days of glory--both Thesiger's and England's--now permanently faded. An engaging tale and fascinating historical marker.
Review: The Life of My Choice
User Review - Jan-Maat - GoodreadsWilfred Thesiger wrote two notable travel books Arabian Sands & The Marsh Arabs. Arabian Sands tells the story of his exploration of the Empty Quarter - a vast area of desert in southern Saudi Arabia ... Read full review
Review: The Life of My Choice
User Review - Shovelmonkey1 - GoodreadsI don't read a lot of autobiographies or biographies (if you ignore the fact that I recently reviewed Jordan's autobiography). I'm not sure why this is. As a general rule of thumb I'm inherently nosey ... Read full review
Review: The Life of My Choice
User Review - Anne Ruff - GoodreadsThis book provided my first vicarious travel to Ethiopia. I poached the book off a wonderful friend's bookcase when I was living in Bangkok. The experience of living in a foreign land and reading ... Read full review
Review: The Life of My Choice
User Review - Philip - GoodreadsJust an awesome individual, who along with such other characters as Francis Younghusband, Roy Chapman Andrews, Peter Fleming and Richard Burton, makes me feel like a total failure in life (but somehow ... Read full review
Review: The Life of My Choice
User Review - DoctorM - GoodreadsLet's just admit it: if you're male, you want to be Wilfred Thesiger. You do. Born to British diplomatic family in Abyssinia early in the century, growing up in a dying Edwardian world, then a life ... Read full review
Review: The Life of My Choice
User Review - Rowan - GoodreadsPremise: Parents wanted a traditional English life for me, but that didn't feel right. My choice instead was to be like Lawrence of Arabia. Read full review
Review: The Life of My Choice
User Review - David Kessler - GoodreadsWildred , the adventurer, lived quite the life. The Saudi desert story just kept me reading Read full review
Review: The Life of My Choice
User Review - Elisabeth - Goodreadsvery good on 'imperial' Ethiopia...read before going on trip. WF's penchant for young boys disturbing; hope he didn't do too much damage Read full review
