8vo. 242pp, [14]. With 109 black and white photographic illustrations, and three maps. Original publisher's green cloth, lettered in gilt and black, with the photographic dustwrapper. Some edgewear, with the bookplate of Richard Calvert Williamson. Inscribed to Henry Williamson by his wife 'To my darling husband on his birthday, August 1964, with all my love. Anne.' followed by a transcription of At the Wedding March by Gerard Manley Hopkins, in the same hand.

The first edition of renowned explorer Wilfred Thesiger's (1910-2003) account of eight years spent living among the Madan, or Marsh Arabs, the indigenous people of the Tigris and Euphrates in southern Iraq. Among others, he was awarded the Founder's Gold Medal from the Royal Geographical Society, the Lawrence of Arabia Medal from the Royal Central Asian Society, and the Livingstone Gold Medal from the Royal Scottish Geographical Society.