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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... Kutum , which was not often , we spent our evenings together . At four thousand feet , Kutum was cold in winter and we were glad to sit by a fire . Eventually , sometimes after midnight , his servant would come and ask if we were ready ...
... Kutum on camels and Idris had packed the small tea glasses in a goatskin filled with flour . When we stop- ped for lunch he had to confess that the glasses were broken : since the flour was now full of splintered glass , I realized it ...
... Kutum just before sunset . Neither camel showed signs of exhaustion . At Kutum I found a copy of a petition addressed to the Governor . In it a Zaghawa stated that his brother , the headman , had appealed to the Assistant District ...
Contents
List of Maps | 7 |
Introduction | 15 |
Arrival in Addis Ababa | 23 |
Copyright | |
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