Freya Stark

Freya Stark, who spoke at least seven languages, produced some of the most vivid travel writing of the 1900s. Her debut, Valley of the Assassins, appeared in 1934 to immediate acclaim, and T.E. Lawrence praised her as a brave and exceptional individual. That book opened a long career that combined writing, exploration and diplomacy. Stark retraced ancient caravan routes through the Yemeni desert, studied Crusader strongholds in Syria, and followed Alexander the Great's route across Turkey. She usually travelled alone through hazardous, harsh country, and on one occasion the RAF had to airlift her out to safety.

During the Second World War she served the Foreign Office in Baghdad and Cairo, and she was also sent on a poorly judged lecture tour of the United States for the Ministry of Information. Her marriage came late and did not go well, yet she kept travelling and writing into extreme old age. At 89 she went to the Himalayas, and she died at 100, leaving more than thirty books of travel, autobiography and letters.

Jane Geniesse's biography follows this eventful life with warmth and candour. It shows a woman admired by many who was often let down in her personal life, and it presents her as a romantic and a true original, with the atmosphere of the East running through her story.