Summary

Fluent in at least seven languages, including Arabic, Turkish and Persian, and a writer of ravishing prose accounts of her journeys, Freya Stark was one of the great travel writers of the century.

Fluent in at least seven languages, including Arabic, Turkish and Persian, and a writer of ravishing prose accounts of her journeys, Freya Stark was one of the great travel writers of the century. In 1934 her first book, Valley of the Assasins, was hailed as a classic and T.E. Lawrence pronounced her a gallant creature, a remarkable person. It marked the beginning of a dazzling career as writer, explorer, and unofficial diplomat which led her to explore ancient trading routes of the Yemen desert, Crusaders' castles in Syria, and Alexander the Great's path through Turkey. She frequently travelled, alone and female, through dangerous and uncomfortable territories and was, on one occasion rescued by the Royal Air Force.