Wilfred Thesiger built his early reputation on the account of his travels in 1933-34 through north-eastern Abyssinia, an area virtually unknown to Europeans at that time. Although he later became famous for his journeys in the Empty Quarter of Arabia and the marshes of Mesopotamia, it was to Africa, where he first learnt to love wilderness and the life of peoples barely touched by western civilisation, that he continually returned.

Born in Addis Ababa in June 1910, he was old enough to remember the victory in 1916 of Ras Tafari over the army of Negus Mikael at the battle of Sagale, and his triumphant return to the capital. His impressions of that day, the war-drums, the flags, and the cavalry armed with shields and spears, filled him with a determination to experience the world of tribal peoples before it was too late. He was also present at Ras Tafari's coronation as the Emperor Haile Selassie in 1930, describing it as "the last time that the age-old splendour of Abyssinia was to be on view".

After leaving Oxford in 1933 he returned to Abyssinia for a testing ten-month journey of exploration in Danakil country, where he proved that he could survive the pressures of travel through unknown and inhospitable country. He followed the Awash River to its end in sodic Lake Abhebad, eventually reaching the Red Sea coast at Djibouti, a route regarded as impossible by most Europeans due to the fierce and unpredictable habits of the Danakil tribespeople and the xenophobic Sultan of Aussa.

Thesiger next started a career with the Sudan Political Service, who posted him in 1935 to northern Darfur, in the far north-west of the country. He revelled in the life of administrator in this wild and remote district, winning the respect of both local people and his British colleagues. Later he was sent south to the swamps of the River Nile, but found the work there less congenial, describing the Western Nuer people as uncivilised, naked savages. Before he left Sudan he found time for an arduous journey by camel through the mountains of Tibesti in Chad. Thesiger was appalled by the Italian invasion of Abyssinia in 1936, and equally so by the British Government's half-hearted response. He jumped at the chance in 1940 to contribute to the liberation of the country. Serving under Wingate, his knowledge of the country enabled him to play an important role in paving the way for the reinstatement of Haile Selassie in 1941. Later he served with the SAS in the Western Desert.

After the war Thesiger returned to Ethiopia to work and travel, and later spent time among the Turkana and Samburu peoples of northern Kenya. Wherever he went he built deep and lasting personal contacts with the native peoples, thanks to his knowledge of Arabic, his love of indigenous cultures and his gift for communication.

He described himself as "perhaps the last explorer in the tradition of the past. I was happiest when I had no communication with the outside world, when I was utterly dependent on my tribal companions".

Publications
Arabian Sands, 1959
The Marsh Arabs, 1964
Desert, Marsh and Mountain, 1979
The Life of My Choice, 1987
Visions of a Nomad, 1987
My Kenya Days, 1994
The Danakil Diary, 1996
Among the Mountains, 1998
A Vanished World, 2001