In Search of Nomads: An English Obsession from Hester Stanhope to Bruce Chatwin - Tapa dura

From time immemorial 'the tradition of the campfire has faced that of the pyramid': settled peoples have contemplated nomads with a mixture of fascination and envy, of disdain and fear. English-speaking peoples seem to have had a particular obsession with certain nomadic peoples, stemming often from their own wanderlust and admiration for the unfettered life.

John Ure looks at four regions that are rich in nomadic culture: the Arabian peninsular with its Bedouin; the Sahara with its Moors and Tuareg; the mountains of southern Iran with their migratory pastoral tribes; the steppes of Central Asia with their Mongol horsemen and Tartar descendants. He has travelled there with all these peoples and here observes their special characteristics and what he learnt about their past. But most appealing are his insights into the array of eccentric Britons and Americans who also chose to seek them out, sometimes even to travel with them. Many of them, as he discovered, were often odder than the exotic peoples they sought.

Some, like Lady Hester Stanhope and the Hon. Jane Digby, were exiles from 19th-century high society; others were footloose adventurers, like Richard Burton and T. E. Lawrence. There were distinguished literary figures like Vita Sackville-West, Freya Stark and Bruce Chatwin; notable scholars like Gertrude Bell and Owen Lattimore. And others, eternally original characters, about whom little is known: the tetchy Consul Abbot in Persia or the dedicated missionary ladies, Misses Cable and French, deep in the Gobi Desert. Whoever they are, John Ure has found them and brings them all to life here with great skill and humour.