Desertful

Indeed, the Urdu world ought to be forever grateful to this indefatigable scholar for her Columbia site 'A Desertful of Roses', a work on which she has practically invested a lifetime.

In Desertful -- Reaching From the Past , Roudha Al Shehhi wrote a journey of self-discovery with elements of magic realism, while Shaima Al Shamsi's A Place Called Heera is a coming-of-age story set in a fictional part of Sharjah, that hints at the past and present clashing and how this impacts on a young woman's journey to adulthood.

For those with royalist sympathies, the "little man" designation is a reminder that the Cecils of the world may be "desertful statists" (Johnson A4r) but that "'goose-quilled gents'" (Croft, "Reputation" 47) are not the larger than life figures that monarchs are meant to be.