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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... killed . I thought the Danakil an attractive - looking people , and despite their murderous reputation they appeared to manifest a genuine friendliness . I was prepared to accept the fact that they would kill a man or boy with as little ...
... killed one lioness and wounded another , firing my Rigby .350 almost as fast as I could work the bolt . Then the first lioness charged and I broke her shoulder and killed her with the next shot . Meanwhile , the other wounded lioness ...
... killed , and others would be mauled or even killed before they could stab it to death . In the Sudan , lion and leopard were officially accounted vermin , requiring no game licence to shoot them . During my two years at Kutum I shot ...
Contents
List of Maps | 7 |
Introduction | 15 |
Arrival in Addis Ababa | 23 |
Copyright | |
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