Arabia Phoenix

First published in 1946 Freya Stark writes in her forward 'Gerald de Gaury is an old friend of mine. He knows and loves his desert world and has written this honest record of a journey with the sense of its fugitive quality in time. The trifles of a desert court, the ritual of nomad life, the details of an embassy which reminds us of Ar-Rashid and Charlemagne, will soon be forgotten. Gerald de Gaury sees them with an experienced and loving eye, and, like a collector of butterflies, nets the remote moments for the pleasure of those who will never see them flickering in their own bright air.'