In this diary-cum-travelogue we are transported to the oil-rich world of the United Arab Emirates.

Within living memory there were few permanent buildings, no schools, hospitals or tarmac roads. Now the UAE boasts the tallest building in the world and dreams of becoming a global hub for knowledge, culture, sport and tourism. But for all their urban sophistication the descendants of the Bedouin still live by a desert creed and cling to customs fashioned by distant ancestors.

Citing Arabic proverbs and observations from Arabian travellers, the author shows that while skyscrapers and construction dust may fill the eye, modern life constantly reverberates with echoes of the past.