The extraordinary travels of Sir Wilfred Thesiger

The last of the great gentlemen adventurers

Celebrating VE Day with a talk that looks at the extraordinary life of Wilfred Thesiger.

Wilfred Thesiger in Africa, a unique collection of essays accompany Wilfred Thesiger’s own personal photographs of the Africa he experienced as one of the world’s most celebrated explorers. Alexander Maitland’s biography had Thesiger’s support before he died in 2003. The biography has been written with full access, granted to no one else, to the rich Thesiger archive – vivid, intimate family correspondence, and his own letters, diaries and notebooks which are far more confiding than his scrupulously edited published accounts.

Maitland investigates in depth:

• Thesiger’s parents and family influences,
• his wartime experiences and the ethos of conflict
• his philosophy as a hunter and conservationist
• his development as a writer and photographer
• his close friendships with the Arabs and Africans amongst whom he lived
• his sexuality

In all, this major biography of a great and unusual man will take its place on the shelf of outstanding lives of the great explorers.