Large 8vo. 240 pp. With 8 double-sided plates with multiple images and 4 maps. Orange cloth with title information in gold on spine. With dust jacket, designed by John Woodcock, with a photo of a caravan of people on camels on front cover and one of H. Boustead on a horse on the back, title information in purple on front cover and on spine of dust jacket. The autobiography of Colonel Sir (John Edmond) Hugh Boustead (1895-1980), Britain's political agent in Abu Dhabi during the early 1960s. - A British military officer and diplomat, Boustead served in numerous posts across several Middle Eastern Countries, including Ethiopia, Sudan, Aden, and the Hadhramaut in Southern Arabia. For his remarkable military career, he received a knighthood, multiple military crosses and other honours. Boustead started as a midshipman with the Royal Navy before switching to the British Army to fight in France during the First World War and later in Turkey, the Mediterranean, and even in Sudan with the Camel Corps. His work in the Middle East was geared towards generally improving the living conditions of the local people, by helping to establish peace between tribes, improving agriculture, building schools and hospitals, and training Sudanese and Arab administrators. Boustead also took part in the 1920 Olympics and went mountaineering in the Alps and even the Himalayas. He ended his career as the political agent (ambassador) to Abu Dhabi from 1962 until his retirement in 1965. The present work was written during the first few years of his retirement and was first published in 1971, the year in which the United Arab Emirates achieved independence. The present copy is one of the third impression. - Slight foxing throughout (including on the dust jacket, not on the outside of the covers), a few brownstains on pp. 56-57 and 59, mostly in the margins and not affecting the legibility of the text. Overall in fine condition. OCLC 255358654.
