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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... force was routed . Claudius , despite the defeat of his allies , proved as resolute in adversity as his father . In 1542 he rallied the Abyssinian forces , reassembled the remaining Portuguese and surprised the Muslim army near Lake ...
... force sent against them . Adherents now poured in to the Mahdi's headquarters . His followers , known as the Ansar , were distinguished by the patches sewn on their jibbas or shirts as a mark of avowed poverty ; these jibbas , patched ...
... Force . Bimbashi had been the lowest rank held by British officers who , as captains , were seconded before the Second World War to the Sudan Defence Force . This rank , among others of Turk- ish derivation , had been current in the ...
Contents
List of Maps | 7 |
Introduction | 15 |
Arrival in Addis Ababa | 23 |
Copyright | |
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