Perseus In The Wind: A Life of Travel (The Freya Stark Collection)

Written just after World War II, Perseus in the Wind (named after the constellation) is perhaps the most personal, and haunting, of all Freya Stark's writings. Putting together memories and reflections, "harvested from life and accident", that have carried her through her travels, Stark 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 jeweled quality of literature, pleasure, love, an echo or a scent when aged by the passage of time).

Woven throughout this beautifully-crafted book are references to Stark's many travels, from Asolo to Aden, Iran to India. For those who have loved her travel writing, Perseus in the Wind illuminates the motivations behind her journeys and the woman behind the traveler.