Record Number: 33568
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
'We set off early along a dry river-bed green with date palms on either bank, pursued by thousands of flies which we could not get rid off until we reached the colder climate of the plateaux [...] we halted for lunch while it was still quite early, and their beduin spread out carpets on the sandy river bed in the shade of a large rock, and placed cushions for our backs. I realized then that the Hadhramis had a better idea about travel comfort than cluttered-up safari-minded Europeans, for it was all so simple and yet so adequate. Seiyid Salim inhaled long puffs from the hubble- bubble while Seiyid Hamid read aloud an ode to a railway train from a book of poems, and so the time passed pleasantly until our lunch of rice and dried shark was ready. This was followed by green tea.'
Century:1900-1945
Date:Between 1 Jan 1937 and 31 Jan 1937
Country:Yemen
Timemorning
daytime
city: Mukalla
county: Mukalla
other location: open air, in a riverbed near Mukalla
(Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
(Listener):
passive in company unknown
single serial unknown
Reader / Listener / Reading Group:
Listener: Age:Adult (18-100+)
Gender:Female
Date of Birth:24 Jan 1906
Socio-Economic Group:Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Wife of the British political agent of Aden and daughter of the Liberal Home Secretary, Edward Shortt
Writer, traveller, Arabist, and aide to the political agent in Aden
Religion:Christian
Country of Origin:England
Country of Experience:Yemen
Listeners present if any:e.g family, servants, friends
n/a
Additional Comments:
n/a
Text Being Read:
Author: Title:[poems]
Genre:Poetry, Ode to a train from a book of Arabic poems
Form of Text:Print: Book, Read in Arabic
Publication Detailsn/a
Provenanceunknown
Source Information:
Record ID:33568
Source:Doreen Ingrams
Editor:n/a
Title:A Time in Arabia: Life in Hadhramaut
Place of Publication:London
Date of Publication:2013
Vol:n/a
Page:35
Additional Comments:
Pagination is from the 2013 new edition. First publication in London by John Murray, 1970.
Citation:
Doreen Ingrams, A Time in Arabia: Life in Hadhramaut, (London, 2013), p. 35, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=33568, accessed: 09 May 2025
Additional Comments:
Doreen Constance Ingrams nee Shortt (1906-1997) was the wife of the British political agent Harold Ingrams, and was travelling in a donkey convoy from Mukalla on the coast to Seiyun in the Hadhramaut in January 1937. This reading aloud took place in daytime in the open air in a river bed half a day's journey north from Mukalla, and was in Arabic. Seiyid Hamid bin Mustafa was a minister in the The Kathiri State of Seiyun, which was a British protectorate until abolition in 1967 under the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen administration (1967-1990). There was no railway in Yemen in 1937, and as of 2014, there is still no railway in the country.