Review Return to the Marshes, Life with the Marsh Arabs of Iraq

Young, Gavin, Return to the Marshes, Life with the Marsh Arabs of Iraq, Collins, 1977

 

Return to the Marshes, Life with the Marsh Arabs of Iraq by Gavin Young is a huge disappointment. On the one hand it contains a large number of color photos of the Iraqi marshes which are very impressive. On the other hand the text adds little to the book as Young got caught up giving a history of Iraq starting from ancient times rather than just focusing upon the Marsh Arabs.

Review A Reed Shaken by the Wind, Travels among the Marsh Arabs of Iraq

Maxwell, Gavin, A Reed Shaken by the Wind, Travels among the Marsh Arabs of Iraq, Eland, 1957

 

Gavin Maxwell wrote one of the earliest Western accounts of life in Iraq’s southern marshes. In the 1950s he went along with a man named Wilfred Thesiger who acted as a traveling doctor to visit the Madan people of the region. Together they experienced the environment, the wildlife and the culture of the people there. Maxwell was taken with what he saw which translate into his book A Reed Shaken by the Wind, Travels among the Marsh Arabs of Iraq.

News Of Iraq’s Environmental Degradation Continues

Iraq continues to face the dire consequences of climate change. Each week new stories appear about environmental degradation.