Freya Stark, the greatest woman explorer and travel writer of her age.

Moorehead Caroline

Published by Penguin Books, illustrated.

Born in Paris in 1893, by the time she was five Freya could speak three languages, and the wandering life of her childhood left her 'precocious and pretty tough'. Self-disciplined, courageous, with a high regard for tradition and Empire, yet also flamboyant and unorthodox, Freya Stark has remained fearlessly independent.

As an explorer she was unconventional, always travelling alone, without money or support. Her expeditions in Persia and the Hadhramaut during the thirties established her reputation not only as a great traveller and writer, but also as a geographer, historian and archaeologist. Yet her success has been tempered by a constant struggle against ill health, the disappointment of a failed
marriage and loneliness.

Throughout her extraordinary and eventful life, travel has remained her greatest love and solace. For her, 'the beckoning counts and not the clicking latch behind you: and all through life, the actual moment of emancipation still holds that delight, of the whole world coming to meet you like a wave.'