Freya Stark was een baanbrekende figuur wier schrijven en cartografie haar onverschrokken reizen door het Midden-Oosten weerspiegelden. Als een van de eerste vrouwen reisde ze solo naar afgelegen gebieden van Arabië en Iran, waar voorheen weinig westerlingen, laat staan vrouwen, waren geweest. Haar jeugdige fascinatie voor het Oosten, aangewakkerd door vroeg lezen, deed haar Arabisch en Perzisch leren, waarna ze zich onderdompelde in de woestijnlandschappen en legendarische valleien. Stark was niet alleen een avonturierster, maar ook een verhalenverteller, die haar unieke perspectieven en ontdekkingen van onontgonnen gebieden via levendige en gedetailleerde verslagen overbracht aan de lezers.
Focusing on the scarcity and rising costs of early 20th-century literature, this initiative aims to republish classic works in accessible, high-quality modern editions. The project preserves the original text and artwork, ensuring that these timeless pieces remain available to contemporary readers.
Freya Stark's journey begins with her departure from Venice to Beirut, marking her first encounter with the Near East. As she travels, she shares vivid impressions of historic sites and cultural experiences. Settling in Brumana to learn Arabic, Stark faces challenges, including health issues while living with a local family in Damascus. Her adventures continue as she explores the region despite the ongoing Druse revolt, ultimately journeying towards Palestine. The letters capture her exploration and personal growth, enhanced by illustrations from her travels.
Edged by the fearsome Empty Quarter to the North, the Arabian Sea to the South and resting on layers of history that stretch back to the dawn of human civilisation, the Hadhramaut is one of the wildest and most remote parts of Arabia, little-changed from when Freya Stark travelled there over 70 years ago.
This witty, eye-opening tapestry of writings on travel and a life spent as one of the 20th century's most formidable adventuresses is Freya Stark at her luminous best.
Freya Stark is most famous for her travels in Arabia at a time when very few men, let alone women, had fully explored its vast hinterlands. In 1934, she made her first journey to the Hadhramaut in what is now Yemen - the first woman to do so alone. Even though that journey ended in disappointment, sickness and a forced rescue, Stark, undeterred, returned to Yemen two years later. Starting in Mukalla and skirting the fringes of the legendary and unexplored Empty Quarter, she spent the winter searching for Shabwa - ancient capital of the Hadhramaut and a holy grail for generations of explorers. From within Stark's beautifully-crafted and deeply knowledgeable narrative emerges a rare and exquisitely-rendered portrait of the customs and cultures of the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula. "A Winter in Arabia" is one of the most important pieces of literature on the region and a book that placed Freya Stark in the pantheon of great writers and explorers of the Arab World. To listen to her voice is to hear the rich echoes of a land whose 'nakedness is clothed in shreds of departed splendour'.
Set in 1934, this travel narrative follows Freya Stark's adventurous quest through the Hadhramaut Valley, where she aims to uncover the lost city of Shabwa. Her journey is rich with encounters involving local sheikhs and sultans, reflecting both the beauty and challenges of the region. Despite not being the first to discover Shabwa, Stark's vivid storytelling and insights into Arabian culture make this work a timeless classic in travel literature. A new Introduction by biographer Jane Fletcher Geniesse adds further context to her remarkable journey.
Freya Stark was witness to the rise and fall of the British involvement in the country as well as the early years of independence. Painting a portrait of both the political and social preoccupations of the day as exquisitely as she does the people and landscapes of Iraq, this is a remarkable portrait of the country as it once was.
A detailed account of famed travel writer Freya Stark's journey through the Mediterranean
The 12th century minaret of Djam is one of Afghanistan's most celebrated treasures, a magnificent symbol of the powerful Ghorid Empire that once stretched from Iran to India. The second tallest brick minaret in the world, Djam lies in the heart of central Afghanistan's wild Ghor Province. This title portrays Afghanistan and its history.
Written just after the Second World War, Perseus in the Wind (named after the constellation) is perhaps the most personal, and haunting, of all Freya Stark's writings. She muses on the seasons, the effect light has on a landscape at a particular time of day, the smell of the earth after rain, Muslim saints, Indian temples, war and old age. Each chapter is devoted to a particular theme: happiness (simple pleasures, like her father's passion for the view from his cabin in Canada); education (to be able to command happiness, recognize beauty, value death, increase enjoyment); beauty (incongruous, flighty and elusive - a description of the stars, the burst of flowers in a park); death (a childhood awareness of the finality of time, the meaningfulness of the end); memory (the jewelled quality of literature, pleasure, love, an echo or a scent when aged by the passage of time). For those who have loved her travel writing, Perseus in the Wind illuminates the motivations behind her journeys and the woman behind the traveller.