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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... Ankober . As yet Fitaurari Habta Giorgis , who commanded the Shoan armies , had with him only twenty thousand men , and Ras Kassa a further ten thousand . It remained to be seen whether these four armies could be united before Negus ...
... Ankober . He then surrounded and annihilated Ras Lul Seged's army , and the Ras was among those killed . When news of this double disaster reached Addis Ababa the town was panic - stricken , with the German and Turkish Legations spread ...
... Ankober ; I was shown where his tent had stood , where he had received his wound , and where he had died . There were stones set up to mark the spots where notable men had fallen , but other- wise on that bare hillside there was nothing ...
Contents
List of Maps | 7 |
Introduction | 15 |
Arrival in Addis Ababa | 23 |
Copyright | |
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