Jeremy Keenan travelled to Algeria in search of the Tuareg, the fearsome indigo-veiled nomads of the Central Sahara with whom he had lived as a young anthropologist. A chance meeting set him on his way to the Tuareg traditional fortress, the vast mountainous area of Ahaggar, in the tracks of bandits, his tent pitched beside caves decorated with pre-historic paintings. Here he discovered that the Tuareg, who had learned to survive as tourist guides after the horrors of Algeria's war of independence, were now being starved out of their livelihood by the violence in the north. This vivid and fascinating book takes us into the heart of the Sahara and into the lives of the Tuareg, into Keenan's own past and into the fearful history and present day experience of Algeria itself.