YEMEN - LAND AND PEOPLE Sarah Searight photography by Jane Taylor 1 873429 82 7 £19.99 128 pp with over 100 full colour pictures pbk 210 by 250 mm portrait Yemen, 'that opal land' of the legendary Queen of Sheba, has inspired travellers for thousands of years. Historically, culturally and scenically this fascinating corner of Arabia lies at the crossroads of the Indian Ocean and Red Sea, its landscape formed by the upheavals of the Rift Valley, refreshed by the monsoon rains of the Indian Ocean, presenting a uniquely rugged but verdant landscape that encouraged the development of the ancient incense trade route. As a mountain people Yemenis are fiercely individualistic, passionate devotees of their history, of the beauty of their landscape, of the rich architectural heritage developed out of this 'glittering wrinkled country of peaks and plains, towers and surprises.' The reader will come to appreciate this country and its people as profoundly as the author and photographer have already done so. Sarah Searight has lived and worked in Yemen as well as other parts of the Middle East which she has been writing about for the past 35 years. She also lectures on the art and architecture of the Islamic World, including the architecture and traditions of this remarkable part of Arabia. She is the author of The British in the Middle East and Steaming East, and co-editor of Travellers in the Levant. Jane Taylor is a writer and photographer, living in Jordan, whose most recent publication was Petra and the Lost Kingdom of the Nabataeans (2001). Other publications include Testament to the Bushmen (with Laurens van der Post) and Imperial Istanbul. She has travelled widely in Yemen, capturing with her camera the glories of this multifaceted land. Miranda Morris, linguist and ethnographer, is one of the foremost scholars of the Soqotra archipelago as well as of the south Arabian mainland. In both areas she has researched and widely publicised their dialects as well as their unique flora and fauna and today plays a leading role in trying to ensure their preservation.