A Time in Arabia: Life in Hadhramaut

This is a new edition of a compelling memoir, first published in 1970, about a now-vanished way of life. In 1934 Harold and Doreen Ingrams traveled to the Hadhramaut, a British protectorate on Arabia’s south coast. They crisscrossed the roadless interior by donkey and camel to learn about the local tribes. When Harold was appointed Resident Advisor to the feuding tribal leaders, the couple became the first Europeans to live among them. During some 10 years, never without her diary, Doreen helped her husband with his research, reports and negotiations. Her stories are unique, because as “Ingrams’ woman,” a British wife and mother fluent in Arabic, she was unrestrained by local traditions, even in conservative villages in remote valleys, equally able to visit with women and children in the harems or with businessmen with connections in Java, Singapore and India.