An unusual man

An exhibition of photographs by one of the 20th Century's greatest explorers has opened in Oxford.

link

Thesiger was one of very few men to have crossed the Rub' al Khali, and not once, but several times. Eric Newby's description of meeting him forms the climax of his excellent "A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush".

I met Thesiger myself in Northern Kenya many years ago when he offered to help after my car had a puncture miles from anywhere. His attire included corduroy trousers and a heavy old sports jacket with leather elbow patches, despite the high temperature. And, of course, a tie.

He was notable among other things for living amongst, and photographing, the Marsh Arabs of Iraq, who were later almost totally eradicated by Saddam Hussein, together with their ancient culture.

If anybody is near Oxford, I am sure this exhibition would be worth a detour.

G

George Lazarette, and unusual man?
Yes

Please call me George.

May I call you Edu, or should I call you mad?

G

Thank you for the link George. Fascinating. I can see I shall have to try to get to Oxford before next June.

Good to see the poll results show a sense of humour on the forum George.

Thanks for the link, most interesting.

Nice to see Frank Gardner doing something useful for a change.

You always bring a smile to my face, George.

...And if even the Bedouin don't go there, that ought to count for something. Some feat - especially for the 1940s.

PS: George - here's part of the Aussie version of The Wild Colonial Boy:

There was a wild Colonial Boy
Jack Doolan was his name
Of poor but honest parents
Was born in Castlemaine
He was his father's only son
His mother's pride and joy
So dearly did his parents love
The Wild Colonial Boy

Judging from my avatar, mad seems right But Edu will do.

There was a Kenya version too:

There was a wild Kikuyu boy
Jerogi wa Kamau...

He ended up joining the Mau Mau, and it all ended very unhappily, as these things tend to do.

G

A very interesting gentleman...I listened to a program about him at lunchtime!...

Was he a Pentax user?

A Leica user, I think.

Next best thing.

G

Hard to be useful when you're paralysed and confined to a wheelchair after being shot six times by Al-Qaeda.

Nonetheless, he manages it, and he even goes to Afghanistan occasionally to report on the war there.

But of course, he's not nearly as useful as the person whose sneering post I am responding to.

G

He wasn't shot by 'Al-Qaeda'. And he's not confined to a wheelchair, he actually reguarly uses a zimmer type frame also. but hey don't let facts get in the way of using his tragic disability to gain brownie points on a forum eh?


Immature sarcastic personal attacks are not the way to boost your self esteem son. How embarrassing.

What exactly has he done to upset you?

G