Justin Marozzi, a travel writer, historian and journalist who’s lived in Somalia, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and Darfur, joins the Slightly Foxed editors on a journey through North Africa and the Middle East. His discovery of a nineteenth-century account of an expedition to Libya in a bookshop in Tripoli led to his crossing of the Sahara by camel, against the advice of Wilfred Thesiger. From dual chronicles of the desert penned by Rosita Forbes and Ahmed Hassanein Bey and tales of books hurled into the Tigris to the picaresque life of Ibn Battutah and travels with a Tangerine, the conversation ranges far and wide, and there are the usual recommendations for reading off the beaten track too.

Please find links to books, articles, and further reading listed below. The digits in brackets following each listing refer to the minute and second they are mentioned. (Episode duration: 40 minutes; 22 seconds)

We may be able to get hold of second-hand copies of the out-of-print titles listed below. Please get in touch with Anna in the Slightly Foxed office for more information.

- South from Barbary, Justin Marozzi (3:09)

- The Secret of the Sahara, Rosita Forbes is out of print (7:08)

- The Lost Oases, Ahmed Hassanein Bey is out of print (7:46)

- The Travels of Ibn Battutah, ed. Tim Mackintosh-Smith (11:57)

- Travels with a Tangerine, The Hall of a Thousand Columns and Landfalls, Tim Mackintosh-Smith  (12:03)

- Arabs, Tim Mackintosh-Smith (12:26) 

- Tamerlane, Justin Marozzi (14:20)

- Warriors, Gerald Hanley (15:43)

- Islamic Empires, Justin Marozzi (20:11)

- Kim, Rudyard Kipling (25:40)

- The Great Game, Peter Hopkirk (33:37)

- Consolations of the Forest, Sylvain Tessant (36:09)

- The Invention of Nature, Andrea Wulf (37:15)

- Not Your Average Englishwoman, Justin Marozzi on Rosita Forbes, The Secret of the Sahara in Issue 62 (7:08)

- An Irishman in Somalia, Justin Marozzi on Gerald Hanley, Warriors (15:43)

- Small Player in the Great Game, Amanda Theunissen on Rudyard Kipling, Kim in Issue 57 (25:40)

- Confessions of a TV Tie-in, Tim Mackintosh Smith on Ibn Battutah, The Travels of Ibn Battutah in Issue 18 (11:57)

- Justin Marozzi: www.justinmarozzi.com

Opening music: Preludio from Violin Partita No.3 in E Major by Bach

The Slightly Foxed Podcast is hosted by Philippa Lamb and produced by Podcastable