Sahara: The life of the great desert by Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle, HarperCollins, £16.99, ISBN 0007148208
WE BEGIN our Saharan journey with Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle sipping tea under the flimsy shade of an acacia on the edge of the Erg de Tenere in Niger. It’s noon and hot – the high forties – so we sit grilling in silence. And as we do, three blue-robed and veiled Tuareg high above on their camels, silent except for “creaking of leather and breathy burping” appear from nowhere and pass within a few yards. Without a sign of…
