Married to a Bedouin

I’ve just finished reading “Married to a Bedouin” by Marguerite van Geldermalsen. She was a young New Zealander travelling the world in the late seventies, when she met Mohammed, one of a Bedouin tribe, who lived in caves and tents among the archeological remains of an ancient Nabatean civilisation in the valley of Petra.

She travelled onward, but circumstances brought them together again and she realised that he was the man for her. This is her account of their life together told simply but vividly. She starts off knowing nothing of the language or culture, seeing the Bedouin from an outsider’s view. Gradually she comes to know each individual, adapts to their lifestyle and becomes one of them. She is refreshing in her perspective, neither a saint promoting self-sacrifice for the man she loves, nor a high handed crusader trying to show them the benefits of civilisation. Occasionally her irritation with an incomprehensible tradition or superstition bursts out, but later on she comes to realise that there is a valid reason behind it.

For example, she is initially horrified to discover that a woman is considered ‘unclean’ for forty days after having a baby, as any Westerner would be. The reasons become clear however: the ‘unclean’ epithet isn’t a stigma, rather the new mother is given a chance to recover in a protected space, surrounded by all the other women of the family, friends, neighbours and so on, who cook, clean, fetch water, take care of the other kids, while she has no other duties than taking care of her baby and as a bonus she has the diversion of their company for forty days. No-one but her takes care of the baby and it is not shown around (for fear of the evil eye) until after the forty days are up, thus giving it a chance to develop its immune system before being exposed to the germs of the world.

Their cave, though primitive, sounds snug and warm and over time they acquire some modern conveniences – a gas oven, eventually a kerosene fridge and once Mohammed gets a driver's licence they have a car too.

This book records and encapsulates a way of life that is fast disappearing (by the end of the book the tribe had been resettled into houses away from the archeological site, their children were learning computer skills and many of the traditions of nomadic life had been left behind) and is a fascinating read, both for her personal story and the account of Bedouin life.

Amazon.com has an excellent customer review of Married to a Bedouin by someone who now lives in Petra.

To see more details at Amazon.co.uk on Married to a Bedouin click on this title link.

My Family and other Animals by Gerald Durrell

My Family and other Animals


I’m re-reading this old favourite for the umpteenth time. I hesitate to call it a classic, as all too often it can be interpreted as weighty or inaccessible and Gerald Durrell’s writing is none of those things. Light and sparkling descriptions of his childhood in Corfu, hilarious anecdotes of his eccentric family and his absorbing interest in all things animal, conveyed with such enthusiam that it delighted me as a child reading it for the first time, just as much as it does when I revisit it now as an adult.

His family fled cloudy grey Bournemouth in the 1930’s for the scintillating shores of Greece long before tourism and package holidays changed the face of the Meditteranean. Unspoilt beaches, welcoming locals and a selection of dilapidated villas are the background for his story and it is peopled by his family: his older brothers - Lawrence, the writer whose prose is indeed weighty and impenetrable and Leslie mostly interested in sport of the double-barrelled variety, his sister Margo suffering the usual adolescent angst over her appearence and his mother, delightfully vague pottering around her kitchen preparing lavish meals. Gerald Durrell has a sure eye for the absurd and many lightning sketches of the eccentric guests who visit them and the tutors who occasionally try to educate him, as well as Spiro the Greek taxi driver who adopts them, enliven the pages.

I recommend this to anyone, who needs a dose of sparkling sunshine and refreshing, gentle humour and as a bonus you can learn about the tortoises’ courtship rituals, how scorpions raise their young and plenty more amusingly related snippets of natural history. Gerald Durrell was to me what Animal Planet is these days to my son, only in a more distilled form, an introduction to the endless variety of animal life and more importantly conveying such enthusiasm for it that you can’t help but be interested. Some of the stories may well have you giggling hysterically out loud, so read it in public at your peril!

To see what other readers on Amazon.com say about My Family and other Animals click on this link.

For details of My Family and other Animals on Amazon.co.uk click on this title.