The Anglo-Ethiopian Society
Book Club - The Danakil Diary - Journeys Through Abyssinia, 1930-34
Wilfred Thesiger
Tuesday 17th November 2015
7:30pm, National Theatre, Upper Ground, South Bank, London SE1 9PX - all welcome
The Society's book club will discuss Wilfred Thesiger's The Danakil Diary - Journeys Through Abyssinia 1930-34. The earliest and most influential expeditions of the man who was one of the great explorers of the twentieth century. The Danakil Diary is the account of two journeys Thesiger made into the Danakil country in Abyssinia, now Ethiopia, in 1930-34 at the age of 24 - which he regarded as the most dangerous he undertook. It was an extraordinary journey and a remarkable achievement. Thesiger succeeded in penetrating country that had wiped out two Italian expeditions and an Egyptian army before him, discovered what happened to the Awash River (one of the area's last geographical mysteries to be solved) and managed to survive amongst the Danakil tribesmen, to whom a man's status depended on the number of men he had killed and castrated. Besides giving early proof of Thesiger's descriptive genius - with his portrayal of the beautiful, savage landscapes, and their varied wildlife - The Danakil Diary reveals youthful evidence of his fierce motivation and uncompromising will, which are familiar hallmarks of his sixty years of travel among primitive peoples in some of the harshest and remotest areas of the world.
The Danakil Diary can be found in hardcover (ISBN 9780002557108) and in paperback (ISBN 9780006387756) formats.
We will meet in The Long Bar on the ground floor of the National Theatre.
If you would like to attend, or want further information, please email the Book Club.
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The Danakil Diary - Journeys Through Abyssinia, 1930-34 by Wilfred Thesiger was originally published by Harper Collins, London, 1996. Hardcover: ISBN:9780002557108 Price: Out of print - but still second-hand copies are fairly easy to find. Paperback: ISBN 9780006387756, first published in 1998 by Flamingo, is still in print. Price: £9.99 |