The Lycian Shore

Freya Stark, along with Gertrude Bell, was the greatest woman traveller of the 20th century - she was also one of the finest travel writers and inspired a whole generation who followed her. Here, she combines her sense of adventure with a unique eye for history and landscape. The account narrates her journey by boat along the coasts of Turkey southward from Smyrna around the islands and headlands where the ruins of Greek cities and temples lie almost undisturbed beneath flowers and aromatic shrub: Halicarnassus, site of the Mausoleum; Cnidus, once the home of the famous statue of the naked love goddess; Patmos, refuge of St John the Divine - and so on and on over the stormy and crystalline summer seas.