Now & Then The Kingdom of Bahrain

Desert Grand Prix

By Wyche Bonnot & Robert Nowell

Price UAE Dhs 135/- UK 25/-
ISBN 1-904566-47-2

Bahrain has emerged in the latter half of the twentieth century as a country of the new millennium. Its transformation has been dramatic. The discovery of oil rescued a nation suffering from the sudden and unexpected demise of the pearling industry and transformed it into a vibrant modern state. Income from this "black gold", wisely spent, funded rapid and spectacular advances. Where there were tracks in the sand, there are now six-lane highways and cloverleaf interchanges. Where there were simple houses built of palm fronds and coral blocks, there are glass and steel skyscrapers. Where there was a small population hard-pressed to survive on dhow building., fishing and trading, there is now a cosmopolitan mix of nationalities living in a healthy and prosperous environment.

It would be easy to forget the monumental strides that have been taken over the space of barely three generations. Fortunately, old photographs exists, many of them taken by pilots whose duties have brought them to the region over the years, to show the extent of the changes.

About the authors

Robert Nowell first arrived in Oman, at the age of 6, in 1980, where his father was a pilot for Sultan Qaboos. Some of his education took place at the Royal Flight School but his living education was at the hands of his father. By the age of nine, he was a crack shot with a rifle; at ten he successfully navigated his father across part of the Wahiba Sands in a fierce sandstorm using a handheld compass. By the age of 12 he could drive a LandRover and, more importantly, change a tyre. At 13, he left to be educated at Oakham School in Rutland. His holidays were spent in the Middle East where he travelled extensively all over Oman and the UAE with his father both by LandRover and helicopter. After Oakham, Robert read law in London but the lure of the Middle East beckoned and he returned to become an accomplished and determined photographer who undertakes photographic assignments all around the Gulf and Europe. He is currently proceeding with his Licentiate of Royal Photographic Society and for the past two years has been heavily involved with the promotion of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature. He is also driving towards an instructor rating and intends to take his Private Pilots Licence next summer in Florida when he and his father will be photographing "A Day Above Florida".

Arriving in Bahrain’s airport in 1965 as a boy with his parents on a flight from Dhahran, Wyche Bonnot has since witnessed many of the vast changes experienced by the Kingdom of Bahrain. Born in Gainesville, Florida, Wyche grew up and has worked in the Arabian Gulf and Lebanon, attending graduate school at the American University of Beirut (1975-77). Extensive travel and interests in the Middle East, including operating business in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman, have resulted in an Arabist’s specialized knowledge of the region and its people. His Lebanese wife, Youmma and daughters, Layla and Mona, live in Abu Dhabi. Mr. Bonnot is working on books about Qatar, Kuwait and Lebanon as part of Zodiac’s ongoing "Now & Then" series.