A Dweller in Mesopotamia

An artist's eye shapes Donald Maxwell's account of Mesopotamia, from the oil quays of Abadan to the remains of Babylon. Sent to the region for the Imperial War Museum, Maxwell records impressions of river traffic, towns and landscapes, accompanied by colour, monochrome and line sketches. His opening scene places an old sailing dhow beside a tank steamer, then turns a quiet evening on the river into a practical difficulty when his motor boat breaks down.

Ancient associations repeatedly meet ordinary sights. At Babylon, stamped bricks, fragments of pavement and excavated walls prompt reflections on how imagination supplies what the ruins leave to the eye. Maxwell also compares these places with familiar scenes around Rochester, giving his observations a personal and sometimes comic edge. Readers interested in illustrated travel writing will find both the working waterfront and the remembered grandeur of Mesopotamia in this account.