'The life in the palace at Aden is finished now. I have a new life: I work as a packer in a factory. It's been written for me to be like that, so, as a Muslim, I accept it. And that's it: finish; forget it; start again.'
(EMIRMOHSIN)
When British rule in the Yemen ended 20 years ago, it also brought to an end the protected way of life enjoyed for generations by sheikhs and sultans, politicians and business people. Today, many members of that close-knit community have fetched up far from South Arabia, in the Britain that once administered them.
June Knox-Mawer rediscovers the friends she made as a young journalist in the last days of colonial Aden and finds the hub of Yemeni London in a highrise council flat in the heart of the West End.
Music realised by JONATHAN GIBBS Producer SIMON ELMES
0 HEAR THIS! page 16