Marsh Arabs
The way of life of the Marsh Arabs was later described by the explorer Wilfred Thesiger in his classic "The Marsh Arabs" (1964). Thesiger lived with the Marsh Arabs for months at a time over a seven-year period (1951–1958), building excellent relationships with virtually all he met, and recording the details of day-to-day life in various regions of the marshes. Many of the areas that he visited have since been drained. Gavin Maxwell, the Scottish naturalist, travelled with Thesiger through the marshes in 1956 and published an account of their travels in his 1957 book "A Reed Shaken by the Wind" (later republished under the title "People of the Reeds"). The journalist and travel writer Gavin Young followed in Thesiger's footsteps, writing "Return to the Marshes: Life with the Marsh Arabs of Iraq" (1977; reissued 2009).