Freya Stark: Passionate Nomad

Description

A fascinating account of the life of the last great romantic traveller. Fluent in at least seven languages and a writer of ravishing prose accounts of her journeys, Freya Stark was one of the great travel writers of the twentieth century. In 1934 her first book, Valley of the Assassins, was hailed as a classic and T. E. Lawrence pronounced Stark 'a gallant creature, a remarkable person'.It marked the start of a dazzling career as a writer; explorer and official diplomat which led Stark to explore ancient trading routes in the Yemeni desert, Crusaders' castles in Syria, uncharted regions of Arabia and Alexander the Great's path through Turkey, often travelling alone through dangerous and uncomfortable territories -once having to be airlifted to safety by the RAF.During the Second World War she worked for the Foreign Office in Baghdad and Cairo and made an ill-fated tour of America for the Ministry of Information. She married late -and unwisely -but continued to travel and write well into old age, going to the Himalayas aged 89, and lived to be 100, leaving a legacy of over thirty volumes of travel writings, autobiography and letters.Her life reads like an adventure story, imbued with the captivating spirit of the East. Jane Geniesse's ebullient yet touching account of Stark's life uncovers the complexity and charm surrounding someone who was both hugely feted and yet repeatedly disappointed in her private life -a romantic, a complete original and an inspiration to those who followed.

Jane Fletcher Geniesse has worked as a reporter for the World Telegram & Sun, the Boston Herald, and the New York Times. She is the author of a novel, The Riches of Life, and her freelance articles have appeared in many magazines. Following Freya Stark's footsteps, she has travelled to Yemen, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Morocco, India and China. She lives with her husband in Washington, DC, and Fishers Island, New York.

A well-researched and highly readable book ... Geniesse's eye for evocative and amusing detail is striking. -- Anne Chisholm * Times Literary Supplement * An admiring and affectionate book .. .It is one of its pleasures that it both allows Freya Stark to have her full say and yet sets her in the real world to which she belonged. -- Caroline Moorehead * Spectator * Jane Fletcher Geniesse's Freya Stark supplies a fascinating individual thread in the tapestry of twentieth-century Middle Eastern history ... She has achieved, in the end, an admirable focus, at once critical and sympathetic. The portrait which emerges is a subtle and generous one. -- Colin Thubron A stunning new biography. -- Ruth Cowen * Express on Sunday *