YEMEN

The most eloquent, most respectful, most genuine, most educated writing about the world's most fascinating, most stunning and most misunderstood country, culture & people. A treasure of a book (and author) especially considering Yemen's troubled recent history and troubling current state.

I bought both titles, not sure if they were different but can confirm that 'Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land' is same as 'Yemen: The Unknown Arabia'. Seems that the first is the UK version and the latter is the US publication. Book is very good.

I really do wish when I was there, that I had the opportunities this guy had to explore the country like he did, unfortunately at the time I was there, there was a war on, call it civil strife, or war against oppression I do care a jot, it did seriously hinder freedom of movement. His treatment of Aden was prefunctory, and his preference for Qat despite his arguments in its favour. I will confess his descriptive narrative is spellbinding and with the aid of google earth I could follow his travels. Loved his description of Socotra, a place I would love to have visited.

Excellent travel writer and historian voyages through Yemen with sometimes amusing, sometimes sad, reflections on the history and the people.

Did not know that much about Yemen until I read this; obviously written before the recent troubles, although it appears to have been a troubled area for a long time. Two downsides -1. The descriptions of landscapes are very good, but pictures as well would have been great.2. The author hops around a bit and sometimes, I had to re-read to be sure what time frame I was now in.Otherwise concise, well written book, revealed lots of things I didn't know even existed, funny in places, and especially liked the stories of the walks he did in the Wadis.As a child Aden was also on the radio a lot, and his history of this put all that trouble in perspective, plus his descriptions of his journey across the island of Suqutra (and the voyage there) was excellent.This is definitely a land of contrasts, coast and immense desert, rich and poor, great hospitality, little infrastructure and masses of archaeology.