Encyclopaedic knowledge

Sonali Raha meets Dubai teacher Mary Beardwood who has created the first children's encyclopaedia of Arabia


Mary Beardwood spoke to 40 experts and 100 lay persons, read innumerable books and scientific papers and visited four countries. She spent two full years researching, learning, writing, sourcing photographs. Finally, last Saturday, she launched her book – The Children's Encyclopaedia of Arabia.

Published by Stacey International of the UK, this is the first children's encyclopaedia on the Arabian peninsula. Beardwood has been teaching in the region for 23 years.

She has taught in Oman (Sultan School), in Qatar (Doha Independent School) and at the Jebel Ali Primary School, Rashid School and Emirates International School in Dubai. She left as deputy head of the primary section of Emirates International in June 1998 to concentrate on the book.