Acknowledgements

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Post-tourism and the accelerated sublime



• The modern secular pilgrimage



• Democratisation of the desert experience