Auto Nomad in Barbary (Wilson MacArthur) lands on the shelves of my shop, where it will be found in my Travel Africa section. priced at £8.50! Call in and get 40% OFF that price when you mention this post…
London,Toronto, Melbourne, Sydney & Wellington: Cassell and Co. Ltd, 1950, (First Edition) Hardback in dust wrapper.
Contains: Black & white photographs; Fold-out maps [1]; Frontispiece;
From the cover: Wilson MacArthur had just arrived in the Union of South . Africa when war broke out in 1939, having travelled by car through France, Switzerland, Italy, Sicily, Libya, across the Western Desert (before the road was built) and thus through Egypt to Portugese East Africa, Swaziland and the Union. This was the first of many remarkable journeys by car which were to follow, but he was already a seasoned traveller. He had paid two visits to the Faroe Islands, travelled the length and breadth of Canada, the Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay, had spent six months in Spain and had toured Morocco besides being a frequent visitor to Western Europe. The advent of war saw him hurrying home to join the Navy in which he became a Lieutenant-Commander, R. N. V. R. , In 1946 he and his wife Joan spent three months touring Sweden by car Auto Nomad in Sweden was the delightful result. Having walked the length of two English rivers, the Windrush and the Fowey, which produced the first two titles in Cassells River Series, they set out once again to travel across Africa in an 18 h. p. Wolscley. Their route took them through France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, the Sudan and down through East Africa to Durban. Auto Nomad in Barbary describes that part of this journey which took them through this once notorious territory. They were at this time seeking a place in which to build a home, and not finding what they wanted in the Union, travelled back to Southern Rhodesia. Here MacArthur bought twenty-three acres of scrub, cleared it and built a home with the help of native labour. The design and most of the carpentry he did himself, and planted some two thousand timber trees into the bargain.
1949 saw the MacArthurs back in England walking two more rivers, the Scottish Doon and the Welsh Conway (subjects for two further titles in the River Series). Then they moved off to drive through Spain, before returning to their home via Tangier, Algiers and across the Sahara by the Hoggar route to French Equatoria and the Belgian Congo. His publishers hope that MacArthur will stay in his Rhodesian homestead long enough to get his impressions and experiences down on paper.
Very Good in Good Dust Wrapper. Unlaminated dust wrapper a little edgeworn and faded with heavier tanning to the spine. Price Clipped. Edges of the text block lightly spotted. Text complete, clean and tight.
Orange boards with Gilt titling to the Spine. [VII] 352 pages. Index. 8¾” x 5¾”.
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