Wilfred Thesiger

Wilfred Thesiger PDF Author: Alexander Maitland
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1590209958
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 414

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Book Description
“A perceptive and gripping biography” of the enigmatic British explorer, photographer, and author of Arabian Sands (Daily Mail, UK). Wilfred Thesiger, the last of the great gentlemen explorer-adventurers, journeyed for sixty years to some of the remotest, most dangerous places on earth, from the mountains of western Asia to the marshes of Iraq. The author of Arabian Sands, The Marsh Arabs and The Life of my Choice, he was a legend in his own lifetime. Yet his character and motivations have remained an intriguing enigma. In this authorized biography—written with Thesiger’s support before he died in 2003 and with unique access to the rich Thesiger archive—Alexander Maitland investigates this fascinating figure’s family influences, his wartime experiences, his philosophy as a hunter and conservationist, his writing and photography, his friendships with Arabs and Africans amongst whom he lived, and his now-acknowledged homosexuality.

Wilfred Thesiger

Wilfred Thesiger PDF Author: Alexander Maitland
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1590209958
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 414

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Book Description
“A perceptive and gripping biography” of the enigmatic British explorer, photographer, and author of Arabian Sands (Daily Mail, UK). Wilfred Thesiger, the last of the great gentlemen explorer-adventurers, journeyed for sixty years to some of the remotest, most dangerous places on earth, from the mountains of western Asia to the marshes of Iraq. The author of Arabian Sands, The Marsh Arabs and The Life of my Choice, he was a legend in his own lifetime. Yet his character and motivations have remained an intriguing enigma. In this authorized biography—written with Thesiger’s support before he died in 2003 and with unique access to the rich Thesiger archive—Alexander Maitland investigates this fascinating figure’s family influences, his wartime experiences, his philosophy as a hunter and conservationist, his writing and photography, his friendships with Arabs and Africans amongst whom he lived, and his now-acknowledged homosexuality.

My Life and Travels

My Life and Travels PDF Author: Wilfred Thesiger
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
An anthology of writings and photographs celebrating the contribution of one of the country's most distinguished and enduring travel writers, and the century's greatest living explorer. At the age of 23, three years after attending the coronation of Haile Selassie, Thesiger made his first expedition into the country of the murderous Danakil tribe. Since then he has traversed the Empty Quarter twice, spending five years among the Bedu, followed by several years living as no Westerner had in the strange world of the Marshmen of Iraq. Later he made many mountain journeys in the awesome ranges of the Karakorams, the Hindu Kush, Ladakh and Chitral.

Arabian Sands

Arabian Sands PDF Author: Wilfred Thesiger
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


The Life of My Choice

The Life of My Choice PDF Author: Wilfred Thesiger
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780006372677
Category : Adventure and adventurers
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Wilfred Thesiger is the last of the great British eccentric explorers, renowned for his travels through some of the most inaccessible places on earth. As a child in Abyssinia he watched the glorious armies of Ras Tafari returning from hand-to-hand battle, their prisoners in chains; at the age of 23 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 books, Arabian Sands and The Marsh Arabs, tell of his two sojourns in the Empty Quarter and the Marshes of Southern Iraq.

Thesiger

Thesiger PDF Author: Michael Asher
Publisher: Viking Books
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 664

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Book Description
In 1979, the author of this work read Arabian Sands by W. Thesiger, which had an impact on his life and made him become a desert explorer. In tribute to Thesiger, he has written this biography of Thesigers motivations and achievements. A man of great paradoxes and contradictions, Thesiger revered traditional peoples, but retained at the same time a profound pride in his own race and background. He felt most intensely alive when living on the same level as his tribal companions, yet rejoiced in his ability to return to the civilized world. also follows in Thesinger's footsteps, interviewing many of his former travelling companions and throwing new light on the celebrated Arabian expeditions.

Wilfred Thesiger

Wilfred Thesiger PDF Author: Alexander Maitland
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781860631658
Category : Voyages and travels
Languages : en
Pages : 223

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Book Description


Desert, Marsh and Mountain

Desert, Marsh and Mountain PDF Author: Wilfred Thesiger
Publisher: HarperPerennial
ISBN: 9780006548171
Category : Middle East
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This is a collection of Wilfred Thesiger's greatest journeys - in the Empty Quarter of Arabia, the marshes of Iraq, the mountains of the Hindu Kush and Kurdistan, and the Yemen - illustrated with Thesiger's own photographs.

Ring of Bright Water

Ring of Bright Water PDF Author: Gavin Maxwell
Publisher: David R. Godine Publisher
ISBN: 1567924840
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
This volume weaves together the Scottish otter stories from Gavin Maxwell's three non-fiction books, Ring of Bright Water (1960), The Rocks Remain (1963), and Raven Meet Thy Brother (1969). Maxwell was both an extraordinarily evocative writer and a highly unusual man. While touring the Iraqi marshes, he was captivated by an otter and became a devoted advocate of and spokesman for the species. He moved to a remote house in the Scottish highlands, co-habiting there with three otters and living an idyllic and isolated life – at least for a while. Fate, fame, and fire conspired against this paradise, and it, too, came to an end, though the journey was filled with incident and wonder. Maxwell was also talented as an artist, and his sinuous line drawings of these amphibious and engaging creatures, and the homes they occupied, illustrate his story. This book stands as a lasting tribute to a man, his work, and his passion. It was received and has endured as a classic for its portrait not only of otters but also of a man who endured heartaches and disappointments, whose life embodied both greatness and tragedy. He writes with rare eloquence about his birth, his devotion to the beloved Scottish highlands, and the wildlife he loved, while refusing to ignore the darker aspects of his nature and of nature in its larger sense.

The Danakil Diary

The Danakil Diary PDF Author: Wilfred Thesiger
Publisher: HarperPerennial
ISBN: 9780006387756
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The earliest and most influential expeditions of the man now considered to be the greatest living explorer. The Danakil Diary is the account of two journeys Thesiger made into the Danakil country in Abyssinia, now Ethiopia, in 1930-34 at the age of 24 - which, today, he still regards as the most dangerous he undertook. It was an extraordinary journey and a remarkable achievement. Thesiger succeeded in penetrating country that had wiped out two Italian expeditions and an Egyptian army before him, discovered what happened to the Awash River (one of the area's last geographical mysteries to be solved) and managed to survive amongst the Danakil tribesmen, to whom a man's status depended on the number of men he had killed and castrated. Besides giving early proof of Thesiger's descriptive genius - with his portrayal of the beautiful, savage landscapes, and their varied wildlife - The Danakil Diary reveals youthful evidence of his fierce motivation and uncompromising will, which are familiar hallmarks of his sixty years of travel among primitive peoples in some of the harshest and remotest areas of the world.

Arabian Sands

Arabian Sands PDF Author: Wilfred Thesiger
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101160667
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 426

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Book Description
Arabian Sands is Wilfred Thesiger's record of his extraordinary journey through the parched "Empty Quarter" of Arabia. Educated at Eton and Oxford, Thesiger was repulsed by the softness and rigidity of Western life-"the machines, the calling cards, the meticulously aligned streets." In the spirit of T. E. Lawrence, he set out to explore the deserts of Arabia, traveling among peoples who had never seen a European and considered it their duty to kill Christian infidels. His now-classic account is invaluable to understanding the modern Middle East.