Lesley Blanch: Inner Landscapes, Wilder Shores

 

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 In this richly evocative biography, Anne Boston draws on publishers' archives, unpublished journals, and conversations with those who knew her to piece together, for the first time, the tumultuous life of a free spirit for whom "character plus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."