The islands of Socotra lie some 190 nautical miles off the southern coast of Yemen, in the Gulf of Aden. Their relative isolation merely hints at their extraordinary foreignness. Like a lesser Galapagos, these islands boast flora and fauna found nowhere else on Earth. Moreover, the Socotran people have their own language (which lacks a script) and distinctive culture, cuisine and neither Arabian nor African, yet strongly and distinctively Socotran.
Richard Boggs spent many months in this remote and other-worldly archipelago, mixing with the Socotran peoples and capturing in world class photographs the uniqueness of the land and its life. The Lost World of Socotra brings this remarkable location to a new audience and is, truly, a journey through lands like no other.
Richard Boggs has worked for over a decade in the Arabic-speaking world, teaching in Yemen, Lebanon and Khartoum. For two years he lived on one of the most remote places on earth: the Yemeni island of Socotra. His island experiences are published in his first travel book, The Lost World of Socotra (Stacey International, 2009). When not travelling he likes to cultivate his herbaceous border in Ireland.