The Changing Scenes of Life: An Autobiography

In 1897, author John Bagot Glubb was born in Lancashire, England, into a family with a long military tradition. After a happy childhood spent indulging his love of horses and a formal education at Cheltenham College, it was perhaps inevitable that he would follow in his father’s footsteps by joining the Royal Engineers. Eager to serve his country during the First World War, he sailed for France in 1915 at the age of 18.

In his own frank and honest style, Glubb recounts these early years and all that was to follow in a long and illustrious career of eventful and active service for Britain and in the Middle East. Using his recollections, family documents, diaries, and letters, he presents his fascinating life—lived during a period of great social change and major world events. Glubb’s great passion for life radiates through his narrative, with his overriding love and compassion for those he lived and worked with demonstrating the strong Christian principles and high moral standards he abided by.

Glubb is perhaps best known for his work with the Arab Legion in Transjordan and with the Bedouin tribes in Iraq, where he became known as ‘Glubb Pasha’. He wrote extensively in a number of his books about the almost forty years he spent living and working with the Arab people. Less well known is his life following his return to England after his dismissal by King Hussein in 1956—who remained a lifelong friend. During this time, Glubb found a new way to continue serving his beloved adopted home: educating the Western world through his writing and lecturing tours on the history of the Arab empire, and ‘setting the record straight’ on their abiding contribution to the development of civilisation.