The Golden Bubble (English Edition)

Mr. Owen has written a very good book about an unlikely subject – the Persian (or as the Arabs would have it Arabian) Gulf. Mr. Owen immersed himself in the disorderly Arabian life, rented a house-flat in the middle of an Arab town, went out hunting with sheikhs, worked hard at learning the language and was accepted by the Arabs as a friend. He is an exemplary traveller. Inevitably, however, his book is chiefly interesting as almost a last glimpse of a changing world. How much longer can these independent sheikhdoms with their light-handed British advisers last under the pressure of nationalism? It is true that an outbreak might destroy the golden bubble of oil, but few nationalists worry about this. “Who would want his golden bubble to burst before its time?” Mr. Owen asks, and answers himself: “Only he who has none.” JS, Punch, 21-08-1957