| THESIGER | Wilfred -; author who spent five years exploring the deserts of Arabia on foot and by camel before writing Arabian Sands (8) |
| PROUST | French author who spent his last years as an invalid recluse in a cork-lined room |
| OTOOLE | Lawrence of Arabia, on screen |
| LAHIFF | Max - - - , Bristol loosehead who spent five seasons at Bath... (6) |
| BEDOUIN | A member of any of the nomadic Arab tribes inhabiting the deserts of Arabia, Jordan and Syria, as well as parts of the Sahara (7) |
| SAND | French writer who spent three months in Mallorca during the winter 1838/39 and wrote a book about the experience (6,4) |
| GEORGE | French writer who spent three months in Mallorca during the winter 1838/39 and wrote a book about the experience (6,4) |
| THELASTWALTZ | Engelbert Humperdinck single that spent five weeks at number one in the UK in 1967 |
| SIMOOM | Strong suffocating sand-laden wind of the deserts of Arabia and North Africa (6) |
| NEVILLECARDUS | The Guardian's cricket writer who spent WWII in Sydney (7,6) |
| STARK | Explorer who wrote about her exploits travelling uncharted Middle Eastern lands by camel, donkey and foot in The Valleys of the Assassins and other books (5) |
| BACTRIAN | Two-humped camel of the deserts of central Asia (8) |
| ORYX | Large antelope of the deserts and dry plains of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula (4) |
| GILAMONSTER | A large venomous lizard of the deserts of Mexico (4,7) |
| JOSHUATREE | A small yucca native to the deserts of south-west US (6,4) |
| THORNY | ___ devil, reptile that inhabits the deserts of Australia (6) |
| RAIN | "And I miss you / Like the deserts miss the ___" (1994 Everything but the Girl lyric) |
| WAS | 1992 Geoff Ryman novel exploring the themes of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum (3) |
| FENNEC | Very small, nocturnal fox inhabiting deserts of Arabia and N Africa (6) |
| STROLL | Go on foot and on the way get bread (6) |
