Under a Lilac-Bleeding Star

by Lesley Blanch

"Under this unusual title, Lesley Blanch, a compulsive traveller and therefore, according to the Balkan saying, "born under a lilac-bleeding star," writes of life in Bulgaria at the end of the 1940s, and of her travels from Uzbekistan to Guatemala by way of North Africa and Siberia. Alongside her own vivid recollections of life on the move, she weaves in the journeys of Pierre Loti; the last Ruritanian Queen, Marie of Roumania, in her Balkan setting; Vernon Lee, and Laurence Hope.

Her artist's eye for detail and her vitality bring to life people and places. She is there and takes the reader with her. "

Genres: Travel

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

A scholarly romantic, Lesley Blanch influenced and inspired generations of writers, readers and critics. Her first book, The Wilder Shores of Love — the stories of four ninteenth-century women who followed the beckoning Eastern star — 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.

Savvy, self-possessed and talented, Blanch did what she wanted and earned a good living at a time when women were expected to stay at home and be subservient to the needs of husband and children. She was glamorous and stylish and, in her own unique way, distinctly powerful.

She knew something of the Middle East as it once was, before conflict and turmoil became the essence of relations between the Arab World and the West. The places she travelled to and which obsessed her are still newsworthy today: Russia, The Balkans, The Middle East, Turkey, Afghanistan.

Reviews

[Tracy Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not sure where or when I picked this book up, but I’m so glad I did! Blanch has such a discerning but generous eye for people and place, and her writing brings them to life. Whether writing about places she lived during the post-war sea change brought about by the coming Iron Curtain, exploring the splendors of Mexico, or bringing to life the travelers of the past, those who, like her, were under a lilac-bleeding star, she provides vivid descriptions that evoke the look, the smell, and the feel of the destinations she loved.