Customer Reviews

A Reed Shaken by the Wind: A Journey Through the Unexplored Marshlands of Iraq (Transaction Large Print Books)

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It is astounding that in such a short time the world can change so dramatically. The events in this book are a little over 40 years old yet so much has changed and so much may be lost forever. Maxwell documents the lives of these wonderful people and a land that is rapidly disappearing now. The roots of the 'otter' books are also here in the eventual arrival of Mijbil. Sadly, even the status of Mij's sub-speciation has now apparently disappeared too. Anyone with an interest in the lives of other people should have a copy of this book in their libraries.

I originally read this gem of a book by Maxwell during the 1970s (we had had to read "Ring of Bright Water" in school) and returned to it again several years ago while I was planning a conference about restoring the marshlands (and people) that had all but been competely destroyed by Saddam. Of the handful of mid-century books by British ex-pats about the marshes, I still think that Maxwell remains the best writer of the group. Much of my own prose in "Wetlands of Mass Destruction: Ancient Presage for Contemporary Ecocide in Southern Iraq" benefited from a third reread of this exploration classic.