But is there more to the story? In fact, the Post reports that she spent seven hours at a posh salon, TV production crew in tow, getting ready for the big night. The Secret Service, which is charged with protecting President Barack Obama and other highlevel officials, says the Salahis were not invited to the dinner. The agency is conducting.
Guardian journalist and author who wrote a bestseller about his Saharan travels Geoffrey Moorhouse, who has died aged 77, was a Guardian journalist of deep integrity who moved out of daily newspapers to write books on a variety of themes, most often invoking the human spirit.
One book in particular, The Fearful Void , is remembered some 35 years later in revealing in its author, as one critic put it, a sublime madness. Aged 40, without previous experience of the desert, or of camels, how to navigate or local languages, he decided to attempt the first solo west-to-east crossing of the Sahara, some 3, miles.
His was not a journey simply to conquer a physical barrier, but more a voyage of self-discovery: he wished to come to terms with his own fears about life. Cross the Sahara from the Atlantic to the Nile, he felt, and he could do anything. After five months and some appalling hardships — not least the death of three camels, the dishonesty of companions he found that he could not travel alone , dysentery that seemed never-ending, feet that were forever blistered, food ghastly to his western tastes — he gave up.
But in many an interview, he said he now understood himself better, even in failure. His account, although not pleasant reading, was a success on both sides of the Atlantic, and in Britain a bestseller, which he greeted with a wry comment about almost having to die before readers took an interest. This was his sixth book, and more than 20 more would follow. His books showed an eclecticism in his nature but were never less than expert in their research and writing.
