Yemen today, like the rest of Arabia, is undergoing rapid and inevitable change. This book records a time when town and country had only recently embarked on the decades of upheaval, and much was visually unchanged.
Hugh Leach, OBE, an Arabist, spent most of his thirty-six-year career as a soldier and diplomat in the Middle East. His last four years were spent in making a seminal study of contemporary trends in Islam. Since retiring, he has become interested in exploring regions of Central Asia, especially the sources of the Oxus and Jaxartes, and has led several expeditions of young people into the mountainous regions of northern Pakistan. He is Historian of the Royal Society of Asian Affairs (formerly the Royal Central Asian Society) and author of its centennial history, Strolling about on the Roof of the World (2003). He shares with Dame Freya Stark the honour of being awarded one of the Society's memorial medals: Freya in 1951 that relating to Sir Percy Sykes, and the author in 1998 the Lawrence of Arabia Medal. His wide interests range from early Christianity to vintage cars and bicycles, crystal sets and circuses. He is currently associate director of the Academy of Circus Arts.