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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... Sandford had met us at the railway station in Addis Ababa and had brought with him Omar , our prospective headman , to clear our baggage through customs and deal with the other for- malities . Unlike most Somalis , Omar was large ...
... Sandford with 101 Mission crossed the frontier near Galabat on his way to organize the resistance of the Patriot forces in Gojjam . Now fifty - eight years old , Dan Sandford was setting out during the rainy season on a journey that few ...
... Sandford described to me how inde- fatigable Kabada had been during the long march from Galabat , crossing and recrossing flooded rivers in pouring rain , to help to bring the loaded mules over . 101 Mission was camped in attractive ...
Contents
List of Maps | 7 |
Introduction | 15 |
Arrival in Addis Ababa | 23 |
Copyright | |
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