Half Past Ten in the Afternoon

The book’s strange title refers to the period of an hour and a half before sunset. Down-to-earth, it describes both real Saudi Arabia 30 years ago and the author’s journey from agnosticism to Islam, ending in Ipswich in 1988. (The publication was financially supported by Yousef Ibrahim al-Bassam.) Budd’s conversion ended speculations that he might be a Communist, Zionist, an undercover Christian missionary, or a British spy − suspicions typical of Saudis seeing their country permanently under siege as an oasis of purity and virtue (pp. 144,152). After studying Arabic at Cambridge, the British author taught English for five years in Saudi Arabia, later also working in Kuwait, Qatar, Doha and Muscat (1983-98). Alas, as a result of intrigue, Budd found himself expelled from Saudi Arabia, where he had most loved to work, supposedly for being a threat to the spiritual health of his beloved Aneiza: An oasis town north-west of Riyadh, already mentioned by T.E. Lawrence in his Seven Pillars of Wisdom, now with a population of 160,000.