May I recommend some books to read?

(All Photos by Tavarua)

During my travels from continent to continent - I do always keep a small "Travel Library" with me - I recommend 500 - 1000 books as you will set camp for a few years before you move on - On short trips from your "Travelers Nest" bring two to five - Sometimes you get stuck somewhere -

May I recommend some of the above titels...for your next trip...

Wilfred Thesiger - Arabian Sands

T.E. Lawrence - Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Robert Ruarks - Africa

Alan Moorehead - The White Nile

Brian Roberts - Cecil Rhodes and the Princess

and I am reading this morning...?

“Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.”

- Henry David Thoreau

Arabia - R. V. C. Bodley

It was after having a conversation with T.E. Lawrence, R.V.C. went to live with the Arabs. They were both Officers and friends. R.V.C. had expressed himself and did not know what to do with his future -T.E. had simply said go and live with the Arabs. R.V.C. thought about it and came to live in the Sahara for seven years. It was in 1918 after the war he went to north-west Africa to live. There he learned to speak the language of the nomads, dressed like them and adopted their customs and took their culture to heart. Educated at Eton and at Sandhurst. He had lived in France for nine years, six years in India as an Officer where he explored the Himalayas.........R.V.C. a hunter as well. A man definitely ready for some new life experiences..... Who new the Arabs better than his friend T.E.? This new life, changed R.V.C.s life philosophy forever. A book to read: "Wind in the Sahara by R.V.C. Bodley"

.."White Hunters" ....J.A. Hunter (1887 - 1963)

Hunter was one of the first ”White Hunters”. Born in Scotland, he arrived in East Africa in 1908. Hunter came to spend his entire life as a Professional Hunter in East Africa. He brought with him his old Purdey shotgun which, had been a present from his father in Scotland before he departed for Africa (For all of us who like Purdey). Some of his Big Game rifles were a 416 Rigby, 500 Nitro Express and a 505 Gibbs. He owned Hunters Lodge hotel in Makindu. He bought the Lodge in 1958 and it became his final resting place in 1963.

He wrote several books: African Bush Adventures, African Hunter, Hunter’s Tracks and White Hunter.

Arabia - Lady Blunt (1837 - 1917) - 15th Baroness Wentworth

Lady Anne Isabella Noel Blunt was Lord Byron's Granddaughter. She dressed as a Bedouin, spoke Arabic fluently and bought Arabian horses from the Bedouins. - Her horses (or should I say the Blunts) were famous in Europe - they were purebred Arabian horses all brought back to England. Lady Blunt traveled extensively in Arabia and the Middle East. Her husband, Sir Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, a diplomat and poet, who entered the British Diplomatic Corps and served as a British Attache in Constantinople, Paris, Madrid,...,....,..... - Lady Blunt died in 1917 at Sheykh Obeyd , it was here the Blunts had a stud farm, not far from Cairo, Egypt. After she divorced her husband, Sheykh Obeyd got to be her home away from home.

The Garden in Sheyk Obeyd by Artist Ivan Lloyd

Bullfights and Hemingway.....the man who created his own myth and lived it to the fullest

I have always had a great passion and fascination for bullfights and it shows in my home where bronze sculptures, books and paintings are telling their stories of an ancient art form. When there is time on a Sunday afternoon...""La Fiesta Brava"". I have watched some beautiful bullfights in Bogota, Colombia...and many other places where appriciation and understanding of this art is part of the culture and the people - especially in Latin America and Spain. Hemingway had his passion for bullfights, deep sea fishing, hunting, conversations and life in it's own way. It is all about creation of your life as an art and nothing is more important than to live it to the fullest.

(All photos taken by Loomis Dean in the 1960s)

Lord Byron

Lord George Byron needs no further introduction. He was one of the most colorful figures in literature, personifying the Romantic movement in his life.

“Passion is the element in which we live; without it, we hardly vegetate.”

Niki de Saint Phalle (1930 - 2002)

Niki as "the shooting artist" 1960s.

"Life .. is never the way one imagines it. It surprises you, it amazes you, and it makes you laugh or cry when you don't expect it. - Niki de Saint Phalle


I took this picture at the Zurich Haupt Bahnhof last week... so I added a few more photos of an interesting artist.

She was famous for her shooting pictures in the early 1960s. She was at this time in her life living and working in Paris, France. The Shooting Paintings – that were to stimulate and shock the public, but it also established her as an international artist. She toured for some time as the shooting artist using a 22 cal to shoot paint containers attached to her work.

Shooting picture......

Nanas, Leibnizufer, Hannover

The Sitwells - One of the most aristocratic and eccentric British families

Renishaw Hall - The Home of the Sitwell Family

The Sitwells with their three children.

Sir Francis Osbert Sacheverell Sitwell, 5th Baronet,1892 - 1969. His elder sister was Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell and his younger brother Sir Sacheverell Sitwell. They devoted their lives to the arts and literature. Facinating family - I use to read Sir Osbert Sitwells - Left Hand Right Hand, Great Morning, Tales my father taught me, and Noble Essences etc. Dame Edith wrote an excellent piece on English Eccentrics - these books are still part of my travel literature around the globe.

http://www.sitwell.co.uk/

Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell (1887 – 1964)

Edith Sitwell by Percy Wyndham Lewis, 1943