A scholarly romantic, the celebrated author and distinguished traveller, Lesley Blanch, MBE (1904-2007), influenced and inspired generations of writers, readers and critics. Her first book, The Wilder Shores of Love pioneered a new kind of group biography focusing on women escaping the boredom of convention. An instant classic, it has remained in print in English since first publication in 1954. Lesley Blanch was ahead of her time and prescient in the way she attempted to bridge West and East.

Other titles include The Sabres of Paradise, Conquest and Vengeance in the Caucasus; Journey into the Mind’s Eye, Fragments Of An Autobiography; and On the Wilder Shores of Love: A Bohemian Life. Find out more at official website www.lesleyblanch.com

JOE BOYD, THE GUARDIAN: “There is something of a cult around Lesley Blanch. Philip Mansel, author of Constantinople and other works of historical scholarship, calls her ‘not a school, a trend, or a fashion, but a true original’.”