The Lost Oasis: The True Story Behind The English Patient

The Lost Oasis: The True Story Behind The English Patient

by Saul Kelly
The Lost Oasis: The True Story Behind The English Patient

The Lost Oasis: The True Story Behind The English Patient

by Saul Kelly

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Overview

The Lost Oasis tells the true story behind The English Patient. An extraordinary episode in World War II, it describes the Zerzura Club, a group of desert explorers and adventurers who indulged in desert travel by early-model-motor cars and airplanes, and who searched for lost desert oases and ancient cities of vanished civilizations. In reality, they were mapping the desert for military reasons and espionage. The club's members came from countries that soon would be enemies: England and the Allied Forces v. Italy and Germany. When war erupted in 1939, Ralph Bagnold founded the British Long Range Desert Group to spy on and disrupt Rommel's advance on Cairo, while a fellow club member, Hungarian Count Almasy, succeeded in placing German spies there. Ultimately, the British prevailed. Saul Kelly's riveting history draws on interviews with survivors and previously unknown documentary material in England, Italy, Germany, Hungary, and Egypt. His book reads like a thriller -- with one key difference: it's all true.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780786747245
Publisher: Basic Books
Publication date: 04/20/2009
Sold by: Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format: eBook
Pages: 320
File size: 7 MB

About the Author

Saul Kelly is lecturer at King's College, London, specializing in the history of the Great Powers in Northern Africa. He has written several books, including Cold War in the Desert, and with Charles Douglas-Home, Dignified and Efficient: The British Monarchy in the Twentieth Century. He lives in London.

Table of Contents

Illustrationsix
Prefacexi
Mapsxv
1The Hunt for Zerzura1
2A Desert Tragedy26
3Knight of the Desert36
4'On-On Baggers!'64
5Another Fashoda?82
6The Lost Army of King Cambyses115
7Bagnold's Boys133
8Plan El Masri159
9Libyan Taxis Ltd.179
10Operation Salam192
11Operation Kondor220
12The Fall of Ozymandias233
Glossary of Arabic Words255
Glossary of Acronyms256
Chronology257
Dramatis Personae260
Notes263
Bibliography282
Index289
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