Literary Picks

Author: Edward Pickering

Wilfred Thesiger, one of the 20th century's greatest explorers, died this summer at age 93 in England, far from the remote and inaccessible lands where he spent nearly all his life. Thesiger is considered by many to have been the last in a long and illustrious line of English explorers, a breed of men that has gone the way of the British Empire. Thesiger leaves behind a number of books, from which his unparalleled reputation for exploration shines forth, including his memoir, "The Life of My Choice." A virtual compendium of adventure, this book records a life as astonishing as any you will encounter in print.

Thesiger was born in Abyssinia (modern-day Ethiopia) in 1910, the first British child ever born in that land. He spent his childhood in the hills above the capital city of Addis Ababa, where his father was British consulate. Though he lived and travelled in myriad lands, including western and southern Sudan, the Empty Quarter of Arabia, the marshes of southern Iraq and the uplands of Afghanistan and Pakistan, Thesiger always identified with the country of his birth, a land that during the opening years of the 20th century preserved intact ancient traditions and tribal cultures. The defining moment of young Thesiger life's occurred when he witnessed a celebratory procession occasioned by the of suppression of a rebellion:

"I believe that day implanted in me a life-long craving for barbaric splendour, for savagery and colour and the throb of drums, and that it gave me a lasting veneration for long-established custom and ritual, from which would derive later a deep-seated resentment of Western innovations in other lands, and a distaste for the drab uniformity of the modern world."

After attending school and university in Britain (Eton and Oxford, respectively), Thesiger returned to Abyssinia intent on finding the source of the Awash River, believed to originate in the Sultanate of Aussa, a region unexplored by Europeans. Thus, at age 23, Thesiger became the first white to venture into this forbidden land, on his journey passing through the territory of the Danakil, a tribe that kills almost indiscriminately. Manhood, among this fierce people, is gauged by number of men slain. Having accomplished his remarkable journey, Thesiger next set out for the Sudan, where he earned an appointment in Sudan Political Service. Fortunately, Thesiger's superiors stationed him in the far western reaches of the country, in an arid land populated by camel-riding, Arabic-speaking nomadic tribes. Thesiger's account of his years among these people, which were among the happiest of his life, is captivating. Here, Thesiger's love for the desert, with its vast realms and silent, proud peoples, became ingrained. From his base in Darfur, Thesiger ventured into the virtually unexplored mountains of Tibesti in eastern Chad. After a stint in the marshland of southern Sudan, among pagan black Africans, Thesiger joined the British army poised to liberate Abyssinia and reinstate is rightful ruler, Emperor Haile Selassie, formerly Ras Tafari. This great man, to whom the book is dedicated, was a loyal friend of Thesiger's. The fate of his country, which Mussolini's Italians had brutally conquered in 1936, agonized Thesiger throughout the late 1930s. Thesiger follows his account of this little known theater of World War II with a chapter on his exploits as a member of the SAS in the deserts North Africa, where he harassed and raided Rommel's Germans. The memoir's last chapters describe the author's travels through the Middle East (for greater detail see his other books, "The Marsh Arabs" and "Arabian Sands"), northern Abyssinia and Kenya.

Always, Thesiger despised modern conveniences, travelling instead on mule and camel, speaking the dialects around him - integrating himself into the foreign cultures that ultimately became his home. His narratives of desert and mountain exploration, of battles and clashes and of the big game hunting of which he was so passionate (Thesiger tracked and killed over 70 lions in five years) are simply astonishing. The companionship on which he thrived, the terrains that he revered and the absolute freedom in which he revelled spring to life under his pen. Thesiger led an exemplary life, unquestionably one of the 20th century's most adventurous and captivating.