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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... Idris Daud and came from Sultan Dosa's village of Tini but he had unusually negroid features for a Zaghawi . Idris was charged with homicide . The mamur , who had made a preliminary enquiry , told me that in a scuffle over the ownership ...
... Idris who was on Habib , jumped off Faraj Allah , and all in a second collected it again . Faraj Allah had grunted as I left the saddle . The lion woke , rolled over and sat up , and I killed him stone dead . Idris , still mounted ...
... Idris's father . Idris's uncle was sheikh of the village where we camped on 24 October , and here we saw at sunset the new moon that marked the beginning of Ramadan . That night we feasted well ; then , sitting among our camels , I ...
Contents
List of Maps | 7 |
Introduction | 15 |
Arrival in Addis Ababa | 23 |
Copyright | |
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