So Old a Ship
Twilight of the Arab Dhow
by Marion Kaplan
- RRP £15.99
- ISBN: 978-0-9557208-2-6
- Pages: 85
- Maps: 1
- Photographs: 80
- Published: April 2015
- Edition: 1st
- Format: Paperback
Jacket text...
Ocean-going Arab dhows were fast disappearing when, in 1974, National Geographic published 'Twilight of the Arab dhow' by Marion Kaplan, a British-born photojournalist and writer then based in Kenya. For a firsthand view of the ancient trading voyage Marion Kaplan travelled from Kuwait to Dubai on a small Gulf dhow, then from Dubai to Mombasa and down the African coast aboard a larger dhow. She began her voyage as passenger. She ended it as crew. Now, when the world's oldest commercial sailing route has faded into oblivion, she recounts her adventure, with numerous unpublished photos, in So Old a Ship. This is the last close look by an outsider at dhow people, dhow trading and dhow life before those lovely wooden ships were gone forever.
About the author...
Marion Kaplan is a London-born photojournalist and writer. She lived in Africa for twenty years and, as freelance, worked for a wide range of magazines and newspapers including National Geographic, Time and People in the United States, The Observer and The Times in London. From her Africa work arose her book on the post-independence period, Focus Africa (Doubleday and Elm Tree). Later, based in Portugal, she contributed articles and photos to the international magazines of Reader's Digest and travel articles to The New York Times. She is author of The Portuguese: the Land and Its People (Viking, Penguin and Carcanet). Her photographs have also appeared in numerous other books and international media. She now lives in southwest France.