Wilfred Thesiger, 20c British Explorer & Travel Writer [12min @15:33]

The British explorer and travel writer Wilfred Thesiger (3 June 1910 - August 24, 2003) spent more than sixty years journeying to some of the most remote and dangerous places on earth. He was one of the first Europeans to cross the Arabian desert known as the Empty Quarter. His biographer and close friend Alexander Maitland explains to Sandi Toksvig what drove Thesiger to explore the harshest of environments. Maitland has worked most of his life in architecture but is the author of several of books on exploration including Wilfred Thesiger: The Life of the Great Explorer (HarperCollins). In his previous book entitled Wilfred Thesiger: 'A Life in Pictures' (HarperCollins), Alexander had selected and introduced almost 200 of the traveller's photographs, many of them previously unpublished. The pictures tell the story of Thesiger's journeys in many lands.