Arabia: A Journey through the Heart of the Middle East
Levison Wood
Hodder and Stoughton, 2018
Pages 354, Rs 699
With this book, Levison Wood has rather self-consciously joined the galaxy of British travellers in West Asia — Charles Doughty, Richard Burton, Gertrude Bell, T E Lawrence and Wilfred Thesiger. His journey of 8,000 km over five months in the autumn and winter of 2017-18 takes him around the Arabian Peninsula, where many countries are experiencing conflicts — ethnic, religious or sectarian — with historic animosities driving them to wreak extraordinary destruction on their enemies.
With this book, Levison Wood has rather self-consciously joined the galaxy of British travellers in West Asia — Charles Doughty, Richard Burton, Gertrude Bell, T E Lawrence and Wilfred Thesiger. His journey of 8,000 km over five months in the autumn and winter of 2017-18 takes him around the Arabian Peninsula, where many countries are experiencing conflicts — ethnic, religious or sectarian — with historic animosities driving them to wreak extraordinary destruction on their enemies.
In Iraq, after witnessing a referendum at