Wind in the Sahara

This is probably the best short book to describe the way of life for Arab nomads (and city dwelling Arabs) in Algeria. RVCB has a very cleverly developed skill to describe complex things in simple terms, in concise text.

The book is less than 280 pages long, and covers a huge amount of ground. Generally concurrently telling of RVCB's experiences and progress in living with the nomads, but also explaining their whole way of life - their culture, their religion, their daily and seasonal routine, and their history.

In short description - RVCB came out of the military at the end of WWI, having spent served in Paris as assistant military attache, he attended a peace conference with Lawrence of Arabia and Gertrude Bell. Both made an impact on RVCB, and his two minutes with Lawrence ended with Lawrence being disgusted at the idea of RVCB turning to politics, and told him to “go and live with the Arabs” (of North Africa). Already having an interest in the Arabs, RVCB did just that.

Off he set for Algeria, with a view to establishing himself for a year or so. He stayed seven years, and left expecting to return.

After being accepted into a nomadic group and spending 4 years as a nomadic shepherd, he moved to be more sedentary, living in a village, but still spending time with his herd of sheep and shepherds when he got itchy feet.

Thoroughly enjoyable book, which imparts in great detail in simple and understandable terms. The only slight negative is he does get a bit political at the start and end, and not being very familiar with the era, the few pages where he explains his issues was quite lost on me. Having said that, the balance of content is excellent, and I will be looking out for any of this authors other work.

5 stars.