Lesley Blanch: Inner Landscapes, Wilder Shores

By Anne Boston

Book Overview

Lesley Blanch was an artist to her fingertips, a writer, a traveler, a bohemian: a talented illustrator who became "Vogue s" maverick arts correspondent and a fine film writer. Her first book, "The Wilder Shores of Love," became a worldwide bestseller and opened up a new field of historical travel writing. From a young age she had a great passion for Russia, inspired by her childhood adoration and first love for the Traveler, a mysterious Russian friend of her parents. Later she found the eternal Slav in Romain Gary, Franco-Slav diplomat and writer, and with him embarked on a turbulent life of postings from Bulgaria to Los Angeles. After their divorce she transferred her obsession to Turkey, Persia, and the Islamic East where she traveled widely, with tremendous baggage. Lesley Blanch loved mystery and secrets. Vivid yet elusive, she hid as much as she revealed and left a legend behind her. In this richly evocative biography, Anne Boston draws on publishers archives, unpublished journals and conversations with those who knew her, to piece together, for the first time, the tumultuous life of a free spirit for whom "character plus opportunity equals fortune.""

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0719560373
• ISBN13: 9780719560378
• Release Date: April 2010
• Publisher: John Murray Publishers
• Length: 364 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.3" x 9.5"