Desert explorer Michael Asher investigates the most disastrous exploration mission in the history of the Sahara. In 1880, the French government ordered a surveying expedition for a railway that would bring the fabulous wealth of Timbuktu, in French Sudan, to Paris. This trek should have heralded a new era of French prosperity. Instead, it was a deadly fiasco. Under-armed in hostile territory, and foolishly employing the enemy as guides, the one hundred men of the expedition were ambushed and stranded without camels or supplies in the deserts of southern Algeria. Many were killed outright, and for four months the survivors were menaced by the Tuareg, the "lords of the desert," robbed, starved, and tricked into eating poisoned fruit. To escape, the men hid in the wastelands of the Sahara with little hope of finding food or water. They were finally forced to eat their own dead, or, worse, the merely weak. Only a dozen malnourished men lived to tell their tale. The story of their 1,000 mile journey is one of the most astonishing narratives of survival ever recorded. With a "superb grip of narrative and uncanny ability to evoke battle scenes" (The Guardian), Michael Asher has written an amazing true story that is as dramatic as it is frightening.Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

The British campaign in the Sudan in Queen Victoria's reign is an epic tale of adventure. Sent to evacuate the country, British hero General Gordon was murdered in Khartoum by an army of dervishes led by the Mahdi. This work presents an account that sheds light on this tale of honour, courage, revenge and savagery of late Victorian times.

Product Description: In 1880, a French expedition attempted to map a route for a railway that would cross the Sahara and connect Paris with Timbuktu in six days. Naively, the French expected little native opposition. Though armed with modern rifles, their column was lured to destruction by the “lords of the desert,” Tuareg tribesmen...read more

Desert explorer Michael Asher investigates the most disastrous exploration mission in the history of the Sahara.

This title reveals how the first ever SAS operation ended in disaster in the desert.

Product Description: Michael Asher's investigation into the famous SAS operation, The Real Bravo Two Zero, became a bestseller, and his biography of Lawrence of Arabia was deemed "brilliant" by reviewers. Here, in a unique military memoir, he reveals his own background: how he joined the elite 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, and finally the SAS...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

A comprehensive and subtle portrait of one of the century's most enigmatic heroes discusses how T. E. Lawrence became Lawrence of Arabia and changed the history of the Middle East, showing how the myths were created and searching out the truth behind the mythic persona. Reprint. (view table of contents)

Chronicles the experiences of the author and his wife, who undertook, five days after they were married, a 4,500-mile trek across the Sahara Desert, a journey that tested both themselves and their fragile relationship

Product Description: Written by the same author as "A Desert Dies" and "In Search of the Forty Days Road", this book describes the longest camel journey ever made by Westerners. The author and his wife made unique observations along the way of the effects of the drought and the increasing spread of the desert...read more

In Search of the Forty Days Road: Adventures with the Nomads of the Desert