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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... thousand men , to fall back and join Fitaurari Gelli , stationed with a further six thousand at Ankober . As yet Fitaurari Habta Giorgis , who commanded the Shoan armies , had with him only twenty thousand men , and Ras Kassa a further ...
... thousand troops , but arrived at de Bono's headquar- ters with only twelve hundred : when the rest had realized what he was doing , they deserted him . The first serious fighting did not take place till 12 November 1935 , when an ...
... thousand casualties on Badoglio's troops . By nightfall on 23 January a large Italian relief column had still not succeeded in fighting through to the beleaguered garrison , but next day it did so . To renew his attack , Kassa needed ...
Contents
List of Maps | 7 |
Introduction | 15 |
Arrival in Addis Ababa | 23 |
Copyright | |
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