THEIR HEADS ARE GREEN AND THEIR HANDS ARE BLUE
by Paul Bowles

I read this book when I was young and knew little of the world outside the Shropshire village where I was born; it fell into my hands via a travelling library van.

Paul Bowles was an the American writer, composer, and legendary expatriate who spent over fifty years living in Tangier. The book takes it’s title from Edward Lear’s nonsense poem The Jumblies. It is a collection of strange, passionate travel essays exploring remote, non-Western, and pre-globalisation regions across North Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East.

Among them is a short piece titled “The Baptism of Solitude”, which describes the Sahara not merely as a geographical space, but as a spiritual and psychological reckoning. It left such an indelible mark on me that thirty years later, I made a pilgrimage to the Algerian Sahara to experience it for myself.

WHY READ IT?

"The Baptism of Solitude" alone is considered one of the finest essays ever written about the desert. Bowles articulates how the absolute silence and vastness strip away the noise of modern life, forcing the traveller into a state of pure, sometimes terrifying self-awareness.

But beyond that specific piece, Bowles is a master of crystalline prose. For anyone seeking travel writing that is sharp, atmospheric, and unvarnished by modern tourism, this collection is a joy.

BUY THE BOOK → Bookshop.org (coming soon)

THE JOURNEY → Baptism of Solitude