Tim Mackintosh-Smith is Dubai International Writer’s Centre’s first writer-in-residence

Traveller, writer, educated Arabist and noted public speaker, Tim Mackintosh-Smith is a man who wears many hats with ease.

In the UAE as the first writer-in-residence at the new Dubai International Writers’ Centre, Mackintosh-Smith has lived in the Yemeni capital Sana’a for more than 30 years, drawing on his studies, wit and personal experiences to offer insights that landed his first book – Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land – the Thomas Cook / Daily Telegraph Book Award in 1998.

The 53-year-old spent decades following in the footsteps of the 14th-century Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta and filled a total of 2,990 notepads that finally culminated in the trilogy Travels with a Tangerine, The Hall of a Thousand Columns and Landfalls. The final volume was published in 2010 – a year later Newsweek magazine named Mackintosh-Smith among the 12 finest writers of the past century.

On becoming a writer

“I can remember having fun writing when I was very, very small. I absolutely loved putting words down on paper. My father was a word-conscious person and my paternal grandfather was a poet – there was always poetry and literature in my family and a house full of books. It’s a mixture of nature and nurture, but I would say writing is in the genes.”

On becoming fascinated with the Arab world

“It came again from an interest in words – Arabic is a very meaty language. I recently had dinner with my old Arabic teacher. I said: ‘Remember when you told us the first 30 years were the most difficult?’ He said: ‘Really? I should have said the first 60.’ He’s 80 now.”

Original article by Rob Garratt

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Tim Mackintosh-Smith is Dubai International Writer’s Centre’s first writer-in-residence