Written just after the Second World War Perseus in the Wind (named after the constellation) is perhaps the most personal & haunting of all Freya Stark's writings She 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 & 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 & 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 jewelled quality of literature pleasure love an echo or a scent when aged by the passage of time) For those who have loved her travel writing Perseus in the Wind illuminates the motivations behind her journeys & the woman behind the traveller