Jane Geniesse

This very comprehensive biography of Freya Stark reads better than fiction. It is well annotated but the notes don't detract from the flow of the reading. Excerpts from letters augment the text and add a sense of Freya's thinking of the time. Freya Stark asked her mother to keep her letters so that they could be used instead of a diary - she was definitely thinking ahead for what she would need when she wrote her autobiography!
Freya's goal to offer enlightenment has been achieved by the biographer of this very well-written book.
The Prologue by the author is a great finish!… (mer)

This was a wonderfully written account of the life of legendary explorer, archaeologist, and adventurer Freya Stark. The book simply absorbs you as you begin with Freya's early life and troubled childhood. The trials she faced as a child spilled over into her adulthood. She was longing for love, longing for freedom, longing for adventure. She found that in the Arab world. Blazing a trail where Gertrude Bell left off, Freya's work became invaluable to the British Government. This "Passionate Nomad" wandered all over from Egypt to India, and it's all here for us in this wonderfully poetic look at her life.

Highly recommended.… (mer)

Timing is everything. I bought this a couple years ago and started it and could not get into it and skimmed to finish and thought I would just give it away but held on hoping to give it another chance. Now that I am deep into reading biographies of famous aristocrats, adventurers, artists, aesthetes, writers, and poets and politicians who filled Britain from 1900 to 2000 , I read Freya's name in Nicholas Haslam's biography and picked it up to check on something and began reading and got caught up. I learned an extraordinary amount about the middle east which really gave me perspective on its current situation and actually clarified and slightly changed my point of view. Freya was a remarkable woman of genius with a love of adventure and incredible bravery. The small bits of her writing included in this books give some idea of her abilities and explains why her books were so successful. I could go on and on about what she did before and after the war, the famous men she worked with who appreciated her talents.… (mer)