When Sydney-born vet Alex Tinson was literally plucked from the Australian outback to become chief vet in charge of the United Arab Emirates President's racing camels, he was given one mission: to make the President's camels the best in the UAE and, indeed, all of Arabia. Thirty years later he is still there, having become the world's leading camel vet while caring for a menagerie of unusual animals along the way.

But this is more than a story about camels and monkeys, spiders and snakes, and all sorts of other exotic creatures. It is also about crossing boundaries of race and religion to create a life full of possibility, of being introduced to the reclusive world of the Gulf Royal families and of sharing the rich lives of Alex's Bedouin family and friends.

Warm and generous, intriguing and compelling, The Desert Vet takes us to a place few have entered before.