Freya Stark is most famous for her travels in Arabia at a time when very few men, let alone women, had fully explored its vast hinterlands. In 1934, she made her first journey to the Hadhramaut in what is now Yemen
- the first woman to do so alone. Even though that journey ended in disappointment, sickness & a forced rescue, Stark, undeterred, returned to Yemen two years later. Starting in Mukalla & skirting the fringes of the legendary & unexplored Empty Quarter, she spent the winter searching for Shabwa
- ancient capital of the Hadhramaut & a holy grail for generations of explorers. From within Stark`s beautifully-crafted & deeply knowledgeable narrative emerges a rare & exquisitely-rendered portrait of the customs & cultures of the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula. ”A Winter in Arabia” is one of the most important pieces of literature on the region & a book that placed Freya Stark in the pantheon of great writers & explorers of the Arab World. To listen to her voice is to hear the rich echoes of a land whose `nakedness is clothed in shreds of departed splendour`.