Other Reviews
Buy it from Amazon.com
Buy it from Amazon.co.uk

A book about Arabia; the romance of wild and lonely places; hardship; adventure and danger; and the poignancy of knowing that this was the last such journey. None will be possible again, at least, not until much of what we call our civilisation has collapsed back into the sands of the desert. And even then, it will not be the same, as the old innocence, the immemorial way of life followed instinctively by men in the footsteps of their forefathers, is gone forever.

Thesiger was a wealthy English gentleman, educated at Eton. But instead of spending his life in ease and idleness huntin', shootin', and fishin', he chose to go and travel around the world's wild and tribal places. Afghanistan as it used to be; Iraq, when there were huge marshes, and Marsh Arabs; Africa of course; and Arabia.

Thesiger decided to go the hard, old, simple way: on foot, across The Empty Quarter, the Rub al Khali, or as some of the Arabs he met called it, just The Sands. The old hardback edition contains a handsome hand-drawn map, folding out to half a metre across, showing the desert's few features.

The Empty Quarter
from traverses by W. Thesiger
compiled by the Royal Geographical Society 1945-50

It is almost impossible today to explain the effect that Thesiger's manly writing, his fine black-and-white photographs (printed as whole-page plates on glossy paper), and that map, had on a teenage boy stuck under cold grey skies in an age before geostationary satellites, digital mapping, mobile phones and all the rest. British soldiers had just fought desperate actions in Aden; Arabia was wild and free, and impossibly romantic.

Thesiger walked to Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, and even then he knew the oilmen were coming, and that soon there would be roads across the desert, and people in comfortable cars would hardly notice the 'terrain' they were whizzing across. He had felt the same in the Western Desert in the war, so turning his back on 'progress' was a conscious act.

The book is beautifully written and wonderfully illustrated; the story simple and exciting; the descriptions accurate, even scientific; the characters as rich and colourful as any in fiction. This is a magical book, except that it is a true tale. It is of our times, a modern man visiting one of the world's last 'primitive' places; yet already it comes to us from another world. Romantic? Oh yes. But it is also a reminder of all we are losing. As Joni Mitchell sang: they paved paradise: put up a parking lot. The Sultan's fort is still there in Dubai: surrounded and overlooked by tall concrete buildings. But Arabian Sands remains in its pristine beauty.

© Ian Alexander 2004