Sultan in Oman by Jan Morris | Hay Festival Book Club MARCH 2026

Why It Matters

The book illuminates formative moments—colonial influence, local power dynamics, and oil’s emergence—that underpin today’s regional conflicts, making Morris’s eyewitness account a valuable resource for understanding current geopolitical developments. Its blend of literary craft and reporting shows how travel writing can preserve critical historical detail often missing from official records.

Summary

At the Hay Festival Book Club, Gary Raymond led a discussion of Jan Morris’s Sultan in Oman with guests Sarah Wheeler and Barnaby Roger, revisiting Morris’s six-week 1954–55 journey into Oman with the Sultan and his retinue. The panel highlighted Morris’s vivid, fact-rich travel narrative and her ability to render complex tribal and courtly encounters with literary precision. They emphasized the book’s revelations about British foreign‑office involvement and the early stirrings of oil‑era geopolitics in a region then under British influence. The conversation framed the book as both a compelling travel memoir and a historical lens on contemporary Middle Eastern tensions.

Original Description

Celebrating 100 years since the birth of Wales’ acclaimed writer Jan Morris, this month’s Book Club pick is Sultan in Oman. Join writer and biographer Sara Wheeler, publisher Barnaby Rogerson and journalist Gary Raymond as they discuss its legacy and impact.

In 1955 the winds of change were beginning to blow across the sultanate of Oman, a hitherto truly medieval state. Rumours of subversion mingled with the unsettling smell of oil to propel the Sultan on a royal progress across the desert hinterland, from his southern capital of Salala to the northern capital of Muscat. Sultan in Oman follows this historic journey – the first crossing of the Omani desert by motorcar.

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