To listen to her voice is to hear the rich echoes of a land whose 'nakedness is clothed in shreds of departed splendour'. 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. As the quote above suggests, Ms Stark was accepting of what she found, but doesnt seem to have felt compelled to gloss things over. This version includes later pieces, from up to about 1937. 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. Baghdad Sketches, her first book, collected the essays she wrote for the Baghdad Times between 19, as she traveled about Iraq, Kuwait, and Persia. Typically-and controversially-she chose to live outside the close-knit western expatriate scene and immersed herself in the way of life of ordinary Iraqis-living in the.

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. During her many years in Iraq, Stark was witness to the rise and fall of the British involvement in the country as well as the early years of independence.

in disappointment, sickness and a forced rescue, Stark, undeterred, returned to Yemen two years later. In 1934, she made her first journey to the Hadhramaut in what is now Yemen - the first woman to do so alone. A Winter in Arabia: A Journey Through Yemen (Paperback)įreya 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.

Baghdad Sketches by Freya Stark