A Time in Arabia

For most of the ten years they spent in South Arabia, Doreen and Harold Ingrams lived in the Hadhramaut, where they were the first Europeans to make their home and the first that many of the Hadhramis had ever seen. Speaking the language, Doreen Ingrams was able to get to know the women who lived in Purdah. Here she describes their daily life, their attitudes towards marriages arranged for them in childhood and sometimes shared with other wives, and their traditions and tribulations. This unvarnished picture of life in South Arabia is based on her diaries. Her conclusions and view on the British withdrawal are convincing, through her meeting the villagers on their own ground and fully sharing their lives.