Sultan in Oman

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In 1955 the winds of change were beginning to blow across the sultanate of Oman, a hitherto truly medieval state.

Rumours of subversion mingled with the unsettling smell of oil to propel the Sultan on a royal progress across the desert hinterland, from his southern capital of Salala to the northern capital of Muscat. It was an historic journey – the first crossing of the Omani desert by motorcar. Jan Morris accompanied His Highness Sultan Said bin Taimur as a professional observer, and was inspired by the experience to write her major work of imperial history, the Pax Britannica trilogy.

‘A minor literary masterpiece.’ New Statesman

‘The book is a hymn to a lost culture and a lost society; romantic without being sentimental, often extremely funny and brilliantly observed. It is the work of a great travel writer incapable of producing a trite or ungainly sentence.’ Daily Telegraph

Morris, Jan

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