Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #230594 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11-15
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

The Guardian
'a sumptuous volume, put together and perfectly introduced by Alexander Maitland...The beauty is self-evident.'

Evening Standard
'wonderful book...a convincing and eminently readable portrait of a complicated, highly idiosyncratic man'

Daily Mail
'...he whets your appetite for the books and photographs that are the invaluable legacy of a lifetime's courageous travelling'

Customer Reviews

A Fair Assessment
When the author is described as the subject's "close friend and literary executor", you expect a favourable interpretation, and this is. But it does not avoid the blemishes, notably Thesiger's churlishness in failing to acknowledge adequately the contributions of others to his expeditions, and his foolishness in his dealings with his companions in Kenya in the 80's and 90's. He avoids excessive travelogue detail - we can read Thesiger's own books for that - though I agree with the reviewer who feels that Maitland quotes large chunks of those books too readily. The travels are presented effectively - I disagree with the reviewer who found the chronology confusing.
Thesiger's professed celibacy is honestly questioned - I disagree with the reviewer who feels that Maitland tiptoes round this. The fact that Thesiger grumbled about becoming impotent at 70 says enough, and though the prediliction for handsome Arab teenaged boys is evident, there is also the comment to Eric Newby which used the word "pansy" as an insult. Do we really want the details?
Thesiger was the last of his kind. His tragedy was that he knew it and that his explorations hastened the intrusion of the modern world which he deprecated. This book is a very fair assessment of a fascinating life. Not the least fascinating aspect was the fact that while Thesiger wrote a shoal of articles in his first fifty years, his first book was written at the age of 49, and eight of the eleven were written (or dictated when his eyesight failed) after the age of 77. Would that we could all enjoy such a fruitful old age after such an active life.

Good book, bad chronology
I enjoyed reading this very interesting account of the life of Wilfred Thesiger about whom I knew virtually nothing before reading Mr Maitland's account.

I think it is a very balanced book in terms of giving each period of Thesiger's life equal space in the book. Many biographies concentrate on the expoits for which an individual is well known, only adding brief sections about other parts of their life as an afterthought. But it is in these other sections that one learns about an individual's motivation and upbring which are so critical to their later life.

The only real criticism I have of the book concerns the chronology and chapter arrangment. I feel the book, and consequently the story of Thesiger's life, would be easier to follow if it was narrated chronlogically: often a chapter will begin in say 1950 and end in 1958 and then the next chapter will deal with episodes that happened in the mid 1950's. I found this confusing. Other than that though I thought the book was well written and informative.

A good overview, but a shortage of insight...
This long-awaited official biography is something of a disappointment, being perhaps overly respectful of its subject, and offering little new. Alexander Maitland had special access to Thesiger, and to his private papers, and could have made more of this.
As a general overview of the great man's life it is excellent, covering all his travels from birth in Abyssinia to death in Surrey, and such a remarkable story cannot help but be a good read. But this really is as far as the book goes.
Maitland fills in too much space with extracts from Thesiger's published writing, which serves little purpose but to bulk up his word count. He was the first writer with access to the intensely personal letters between Thesiger and his mother. These are absolutely remarkable, and yet he does not give enough focus or assessment to this relationship. And elsewhere he only dabbles in any real assessment of Thesiger. He touches only lightly on the psychological reasons for the life of travels; on Thesiger's frequent hypocrisy; his chauvinism, and of course, his sexuality. With a couple of passing lines Maitland strongly suggests that Thesiger was not, as has often been claimed "asexual", and yet he does not elaborate on what this really means - who then, if he was not asexual, did Thesiger sleep with? Even the least salaciously-minded reader cannot help but be frustrated by this. On this and other matters, time and again Maitland manages a few brief, and slightly uncomfortable lines, before veering away once more into the safety of exactly where Thesiger went in spring 1962 or whatever.
The book is strongest in its final chapters, detailing Thesiger's old age and decline. This is almost unbearably poignant. The image of the last great explorer, a man who crossed the empty quarter twice with Bedu tribesmen slowly fading away amid over-cooked vegetables and bingo nights in an English nursing home cannot help but bring a lump to the throat, and the thought of the woefully frail old man calling out to some dim shadow at the side of his deathbed "What is your tribe?" likewise.
But overall I have to say that Michael Asher's 1995 biography, Thesiger, is a far stronger, deeper book, with a good deal more insight into this remarkable man. Were it to be reissued with a new final chapter covering Thesiger's last years it would surely be the definitive treatment.