PHOTO © HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES
Stark’s Early Childhood
The child of Bohemian painters,
she spent her early years dragged
around rural Europe before her mother
became enamoured with an Italian
Count, following him to Italy. A freak
accident in the Count’s carpet factory- Stark’s hair became caught in a
piece of machinery and it was ripped
off, along with an ear and part of her
You should be careful which
books you give your daughters,
because you never know what
irrepressible, adventurous spirit
they might engender.
For Freya Stark (1893–1993), the
desire to escape and explore was sown
on her ninth birthday when she was
given One Thousand and One Nights,
the famous collection of Arabian tales.
scalp – left the teenager seriously
disfigured. Her chances of making a
good marriage match quashed, she
resigned herself to being her mother’s
carer and companion.
Stark’s early years equipped her
with an aptitude for languages. In
spite of receiving no formal education,
she spoke English, Italian and German
as well as Latin. In her late thirties,Freya Stark,
the Passionate Nomad
ONE WOMAN’S FEMININE INFLUENCE ON THE ARAB WORLD Text Sophie Ibbotson
“The tourist travels in
his own atmosphere like
a snail in his shell and
stands, as it were, on
his own perambulating
doorstep to look at the
continents of the world.
But if you discard all this,
and sally forth with a
leisurely and blank mind,
there is no knowing what
may not happen to you.”
CUltURe