The Inebriated Ornithologist

A professional ornithologist struggles with alcoholism while working on the remote islands of the Maldives in the late 1980s. He is financed by the President's Office to produce a volume on the wildlife of the island nation, but his drunken blunderings leave a trail of mayhem and confusion. The book also reveals the existence of a Christian King of the Maldives whose Roman Catholic family held sway over the islands for over 200 years during the Islamic period, a fact now suppressed by the government.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 452 pages
Publication date: 03 March 2022
Publisher: FeedARead.com

The wild adventures of a professional ornithologist - struggling to defeat alcoholism - working on the remote islands of the Forbidden Zone of the Maldives in the late 1980s.

Until very recently, permits to visit these islands south of the equator had almost never been issued to foreigners. The inebriated ornithologist arrives in the capital, Malé, after banishment from a Middle-Eastern kingdom when he was discovered abed with the king's favorite concubine. Using falsified references from that king to the President of the Maldives, he is eventually financed by the President's Office to produce a volume on the wildlife of the island nation.

The author's professional knowledge and sympathetic understanding of wild birds are unmistakable, but then so are his drunken blunderings through the tropical undergrowth, leaving a trail of mayhem, confusion, and even contempt amongst some of the people he encounters, but never amongst the rarely seen birds he meets. There is a wealth of new and rich material about the wildlife of these remote islands, the people who inhabit them, and their often misunderstood culture and traditions. This includes the world's first air-mail service, using gigantic frigate birds to carry bark letters across immense distances of the Indian and Pacific oceans, as used by both the ancient Maldivians and Polynesians for thousands of years.

Startling coincidences between the legends and folk tales of the Maldivians and Polynesians are revealed, which appear to indicate contact between those widely separated islands many thousands of years ago. The author also discovers the existence of a Christian King of the Maldives whose Roman Catholic family appears to have held sway over the islands for over 200 years during the Islamic period, a fact now suppressed.

Weight: 660g
Dimension: 229 x 152 x 26 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781803024271