Alexander Maitland is the author of many books, including A TOWER IN A WALL (conversations with Freya Stark), and a biography, ROBERT AND GABIELLA CUNNINGHAM GRAHAM. THE HIGHLAND YEAR (set in Perthshire) and WILD THYME AND SALADELLE (about the Camargue) are illustrated with his drawings and watercolours.

Maitland worked with Wilfred Thesiger on MY KENYA DAYS, THE DANAKIL DIARY, AMONG THE MOUNTAINS and A VANISHED WORLD. He edited Thesiger's anthology MY LIFE AND TRAVELS and has written the authorised biography of Thesiger.

While Wilfred Thesiger's own classic writings comprehensively cover his classic journeys amongst the Marsh Arabs in southern Iraq, across the Empty Quarter in Arabia, they fail conspicuously to shed light on his character and motives, which have remained an enigma.

Maitland's biography had Thesiger's support before he died in 2003, and has been written with full access, granted to no one else, to the rich Thesiger archive vivid, intimate family correspondence, and his own letters, diaries and notebooks which are far more confiding than his scrupulously edited published accounts. Maitland investigates in depth Thesiger's parents and family influences; his wartime experiences and the ethos of conflict; his philosophy as a hunter and conservationist; his development as a writer and photographer; his close friendships with the Arabs and Africans amongst whom he lived; and his sexuality.

This major biography of a great and unusual man will take its place on the shelf of outstanding lives of the great explorers.