Books with author Wilfrfed Thesiger:

Arabian Sands is Wilfred Thesigers stunning account of five years spent crossing the Arabian Peninsula by foot and on camels, with nomadic Bedouin tribesmen as guides. Traveling between 1945 and 1950, the British explorer treks through Yemen, The Empty Quarter, Oman and parts of the then Trucial States, crossing and re-crossing around 250,000 miles of this most inhospitable terrain. He was the first European ever to set eyes on the dunes and wadis of these deserts. Faced with constant challenges and trials beneath the punishing sun, his journey is also spiritual and enriching, as it requires the utmost courage, patience, generosity and humor. In clear and evocative prose, Thesiger documents a journey of unimaginable hardship and startling beauty, as well as a time, place and people on the cusp of change.

Arabian Sands has never been out of print since it was first published, to great critical acclaim, in 1959. This new edition contains all the original photographs. With this book Wilfred Thesiger took his place among the few great Arabian travellers - not only as an explorer but as a writer. Doughty, Lawrence, Bertram Thomas and St John Philby preceded him but, as St John Philby himself said, 'The crowning touches have been placed on this exploratory activity in Arabia by Wilfred Thesiger, who is probably the greatest of all the explorers...' Arabian Sands covers the five years ending in 1950 which, with the exception of brief interruptions only, Thesiger spent in and around the Empty Quarter, the half million square miles of one of the cruellest deserts of the world. Before him, no other traveller, European or Arab - apart from the Bedu who live there - had twice dared to cross those empty wastes. Travelling without European companions and living as an Arab, Thesiger's experience and