ARABIAN SANDS
by Wilfred Thesiger

I read Arabian Sands at a young age and it has become almost a sacred text for me.

Wilfred Thesiger was an aristocratic, Eton-educated son of a British diplomat whose vision of travel and life was so singular it’s still difficult to comprehend.

Thesiger saw modern comforts not as progress, but as a kind of spiritual confinement. He sought out the Empty Quarter because it was one of the last places where machines had yet to conquer, choosing the hardships of life with the Bedouin over the comforts of civilisation.

For Thesiger, hardship and simplicity were the ultimate luxuries. He believed that a life without struggle was a life without meaning.

Arabian Sands remains a masterpiece because it captures the twilight of an era. Thesiger knew as he was writing it that the world he loved was fading. The book stands as a beautiful, stubborn protest against the modern world.

I did not want his life, but I yearned for a taste of what he had experienced. For years I searched for it, never imagining I would find it. The 4x4 has reached almost everywhere, particularly in the Middle East. Eventually, I found what I was looking for in Sudan, travelling across the Bayuda Desert by camel with the Bedouin. The experience was sublime.

WHY READ IT?

A great read for anyone searching for something raw and authentic in our hyper-connected age.

BUY THE BOOK → Bookshop.org (coming soon)

THE JOURNEY → Life at the Speed of a Camel