By considering why the desert, and the human story therein, continues to fascinate Western writers, it reveals no barren legacy but a strand of ever-evolving inter-cultural practice of representation and self-reflection.

Jenny Walker is Consultant to the CEO of Oman's national accreditation agency. Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and Member of the British Guild of Travel Writers, she has written for Lonely Planet for 20 years in 40 guidebooks, curated a book of Silk Road drawings, and coauthored, with husband Sam Owen, an off-road guide to Oman.

Acknowledgements

Preface

Introduction: Arabia, the Land of Legend

• The margins of Western desert travel in Arabia
• Locating Arabia
• Arabia as a country of the mind
• The Lawrence and Thesiger legacy
• Mapping the chapters

Chapter 1. In Literary Footsteps: The Prevalence of "Second Journeys"

• A tradition of intertextuality
• Learning from the past - Blackmore in the footsteps of Lawrence
• Writing about the present - Kirkby and Hayes in the footsteps of Thesiger
• Opportunities for the future - Evans in the footsteps of Thomas

Chapter 2. Desert and Sown: The Narration of Progress and Modernity

• Desert but not deserted - Asher's modern Bedu
• The desert mechanised - Toy's travels by Land Rover
• The desert politicised - Morris and a Sultan's pageant
• The desert urbanised - Raban and a camel-free account
• The desert historicised - Mackintosh-Smith's inverse archaeology

Chapter 3: Gendering the Desert: Women and Desert Narratives

• Where are the women? Western women's travels in Arabia
• "Pay, pack and follow" - women as desert writers
• The siren trope
• The "veiled best-seller"
• Desert as an inconstant space

Chapter 4. Wonderment and Wilderness: Desert Science Writing

• Delighting in sand grouse
• George and the neo-sublime
• Walker and Pittaway in amateur pursuits
• Winser in search of solutions
• Staging the desert for Western audiences

Chapter 5: Desert as Shared Space

• Post-tourism and the accelerated sublime
• The modern secular pilgrimage
• Democratisation of the desert experience

Conclusion: Barren Legacy?

Bibliography

Index