Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

The Deserts of Hesperides: An Experience of Libya
The Deserts of Hesperides: An Experience of Libya
The Deserts of Hesperides: An Experience of Libya
Ebook301 pages4 hours

The Deserts of Hesperides: An Experience of Libya

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars

()

Read preview

About this ebook

This book is a record of my life in and reactions to Libya during the two periods I have lived there: first as a British army conscript in Tripolitania from June 1950 to July 1951, then as a university teacher in Cyrenaica from September 1965 to July 1967. That there is a connection between the two — that my second stay was the result of my first — quickly becomes apparent. To revisit a Land of Lost Content is supposed to be a mistake, and I dare say it generally is. One thinks of those public school Captains of Games who, on leaving university, tunnel back as quickly as possible into the golden world of youth by returning to those same public schools as masters, and spend the rest of their lives training up new Captains of Games. But my return to Libya was different, partly because at thirty-five I was quite aware of the illusions of twenty, and partly because I came not to Tripolitania, the western province of the country, but to Cyrenaica in the east, which I had never seen before. And in Benghazi I settled down with my family and became part of a Libyan institution, rather than being a single soldier forced by circumstance on to the periphery of Libyan life.

No one has yet written a wholly satisfactory book about Libya: the journals of nineteenth-century and later desert travellers, war memoirs, archaeological monographs, economic and sociological surveys, accounts such as Gwyn Williams’s Green Mountain and Agnes Newton Keith’s Children of Allah — many of these give attractive and interesting glimpses but all are in some way narrow and partial. I can’t suppose that my own account is any less so, but I hope that at any rate it gives some sense of the feel of this huge and still little-known country, so close to Europe and yet so remote. If there are more ruins than oil-rigs in the book, that is a matter of my own antiquarian tastes; if there seem to be more ruins than people, I have little to fall back on but that remark of Rose Macaulay’s that she often found ruins more interesting than people. Ignorance dictates my sub-title: this book is an experience, a personal one, and does not set out to be authoritative and definitive.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJun 1, 2015
ISBN9781900971225
The Deserts of Hesperides: An Experience of Libya

Related to The Deserts of Hesperides

Related ebooks

African History For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for The Deserts of Hesperides

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings

0 ratings0 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

    Book preview

    The Deserts of Hesperides - Anthony Thwaite

    abbook_preview_excerpt.html}|ےǑf-RqF$c !@6QQΛ҅“a_v?acD_4c?Q6y}ec4ߧ.wݫ7Ģb8&0Lş0 KԧP8ybхƢڵ"U ~ -:t)p֥80ڶJ8_ˡV|86-Fi"Y"^ >ݧ>%iǗ&5 } c1Nۚ"v{42KARS>F|R"3;?$e1XFЅ1/:s? LkX ü qsx[<R/\O;8MCW48-t=RrKM0aMb/+Sũxy[.Ks(onVLtT])$ 6M:/_-8P=Q?l2s?Cz-7v &i])# +Ϟ²n\\Gݽup0K]j񹈭6~8r73!pnR20+unh/n",p1@D ZoHIz;:B)W8s6\l!-u%LW#V!%.Q@bj-*"5<&?`B>XBbdt1O G{sfI~. V FE ۃf*s?Zm/c@[e3 !vLyBd2v'{LaQƖ vSP . 1\bnkbÄXz%fH ZqypeC wgF6hh(S&`XC 4r8]8R%<>)o<g-8wҊQXQ=A ŋu3mk6 OR>hr x[,|)nk2zHWjZԣS O~ z Sjgax}qGPRcjd$[joG!t‹ 1 3fRZ̆a4/af 0aA )Yrȡ0Q?-5/Ee9, euPЁs[|kYq;6 k`qgCե9ȣZQǡ4mؖWa:UaLPMYXh~S9 *vBGH$/$e'5f@i7[(*tP^yij1PvwJ3SR:Fh c9 |[sKr>|gjX(Zd][.Ơ7ESh!/L|ֶ4m{LmELథ>Wf:K)æ! #Rpc ЕL-3"E|}D]9Afgo?6êeir?0(+~PGZxc%_`7$k|Ęd!B*ߑ(? :MrX5{~H C_n-@*=DzWuѯo{*L^Lm; [s,r{AR?o(gi4! 0=Y~wVьk;Ūiw>xْ 5|" >n ǽ -.3>x`ly(|6Mt;+ܴ3x i(ujQ&UEc&@ݲT&Hdחm~懟 H{`$ȝQа1MQ fXqBG2$x\{|>{3ŗ) a"vg>-7PۮyYCӟ@׭V3]dIbr:QUp:evPD)*LI%avł(D(c~Po^SLȹc =eP Veekq9]6bZȟ_GÙP}/ū? ^|݋g/}_doEKdƗGTWȰw}ӠJ{"pYDK2׺j6%fLg\TX ̗xc*G9ebA >70֩{&9c3Y Wv7Kxnr<@`AGA*zâvmJBՁ]ReXٜcQEQƽ3ܒpɡPrL +LHɛ x3hy;uϝX^Un{B67 [^xzQ5iS[9L4bSPKF12 zHʚ V'zaRH|aee) JXpiOAKkQe0(6"KF`eeeIZ5 r-Ԭ@s0hKyK2)Bn?<ۀ<"lVI@SLK%S#սw)ۉ9G!&{ڽm#.=)5,q\uY$㸦RzFYf/ #ǷV|p=L߱]cV}Vk"ClX_gOuBFB/ M3dFlTUp L :#d"(T7 5Bpʒyv \Sg,Psr8qD1^9kkj PYWFx\?:q4@+tiHԂ6]O){< gRɺ:fj#05`;̢e ζz6cj>Ef( (\b=Bx;*XBL!U*w(zɌV1X]2,,URz9<2aќHvw˨'va(Dx8!mC' kSr>aĢ0}||J>a3SF?C rTœtNUp S ruyu:~(d k u m\b8V"Tâmk5ƅ@J @sF pDž~eXpH0᱈i?lR-TXe.Ā0vӊ<넏 {' ,iV'bA@K3!AĠRtL~]HC@9>smزXNs!jBNV#>˽!&}L2yֈ왑vO:fSxaBG+7? tm<-ڍ!w"5Ux>DG],O1,|]v5%WaumHyc]>}܏TTR wsΝQ{/@ݥ&.YڸF'>=?YRȘqs[䄶4o4vv K`㌜z9( *Y}Т1H&(wygP݊>zLE1V"ІTЪvqTAײxق5b՝U+ 1Vi}~cST9FV=UBK}?\SbSW<›%޼6_e QX4k1`eJ.Bk#g ݼ}(ԫJ06|?FZGu1;f vHgxd0Yyib2؞e.r}o,3|'-{9}wu羚wQc/#>ŭ_#[;M#O"(cúE:apd}Lw.\.E ?ԣNů<>$2;f򾍆f`Rڌ?XCk]ōSeӹfkq!>8aի4@S%@y0u4kG/(Eػ3Qǭ9GD;LOPjDQ-h&XHWsF؝K,zsyĞ MA 2ν F҇$F;gڏ&RS7%&`,Rtގyq&*g$hq8Kv\fw쬕i|zCHgZFuW%yBY`h^h U>!+L%IX7o %dZTd_\Q=Z:VH jk으0v,|c)OzƊL si6xtuo}ٰzwYGQ,~ILCAfiЗN}7xOIwimwUeQ_Ga<+s\-7|)bFM4jLgl'6%|`Yv9G$]ȒɑXE?H $TB%3jlj.-SO#CNZ*uaO K|!@y̍y:*O nk؉9--N"3a{(  j;QJ5}fӯяE;"iDK=C#k9;by;mTw_W9.ұzpdiqe?Bz{1^8 8i6 uN 8$T'B&(̣ι$"4@&g|PD񜪍"[, #duZ3YhKxz=$ݩC MaYT#_Lt~FA"xG يssO7p1Xe13k6TY[M[ a[ΙMa?5Cd!&$J< 'b j6dwԡǣ\y š. cFz=,?δjF#93 Çt B2o☐M {JW+LX@"x†vOb(լC x[ޭh- RxN2ZB~)z!?k>iZ;mϕi$אtMR<~ɰ#IԅOywf7{Ê b Ҩ:BҸrΫxI?cOw72gܝ('ʗ1;;432Ԣ[pn͹O˨*gl\7+C7fG+"1!Y<ySnJבã]螐aN:hJaG5bV 0vAﻉ#zn̑q/Б"IY~iG֋hVmgU巖6u4U_ǁgUfC1_=!?573JBW R:s$&ѲQ7ufWizvINn}4v1Ptpz뷁pW :[%cxWq'Tqc6M._356bad8"[GlB{ºI[n4\!m8gvܨlv/;mybG8 9e{b4e򒉭TÍl6{j?cbJilфCŔK8g1ŵ@+-8q 6p#K)\}{aA*onv'LŊѓfi&]ҕ(̒4=*Zor_fjV 6tsFҝ7dzy+Fq|5yXHm.kT"y3c_GV ̗8Qu,=afl`'tl_|Qܒ]I6Uł |' g7dgBܻ7)چ| ݭo]z&7PM=q8>(H6:\ߧf_Mpr9V<Z\ę3[~9* (ۅ8Oqd`mr7YxP'e2>8Ɖ)`k;2 ôf@p]k8Ǻ}_Q-}jIjs_Xȝk f BT1Fw]2:mSX@V[Boil=m0SWNw(;!Zڗ%{4ǝobK4Hb3=/ mW̧~:|NݵҮrB=nb,88vKR \lG_[ԇXռNY 坿T1?Y8H5[_s4EHBx`>7f.8_k(ףGÎq3ZI>[}uQ-"Bw= UiRu+r x]9F~kP#@j6T+NgWocU Xt.flceġ-NqX[2*T}W.y36X骕&2L:r4|mM[ y&_TSx^ba6[4L}dwɇ-{Z.Q)nF>0l'_۴<&%ck;*m~rfQ1Gvz׊oݝDK%Guwvg?s@<{Lъ-zLV~uR߷ۅrO҈Y 65a lRiô)e|1YKM5lAZ7Ƀ8s[` UkI3(Asۘz>Z7:4Bm5lWa6PB"φ?8 K*wdbV`z=T3([h` k'QTjR޳ݼX)ӝaUu_kf*yQF`TOX> `pƠΰեqhdZ|cM\_өbzM^juьf`)0gg8$dr}.R:1`|5/PT
    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1