Lesley Blanch, MBE, was born in 1904. At heart a nomad, she has travelled extensively although her great passion has always been for the Middle East and Russia. Married to the French diplomat and writer, Romain Gary, for 18 years, Blanch became arts features editor of Vogue in the thirties and turned to writing and journalism soon after. She is Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and bestselling author of The Wilder Shores of Love and Pierre Loti (also Tauris Parke Paperbacks). At the age of 100 she completed her long-awaited biography, the sequel to her acclaimed Journey Into the Mind's Eye. Philip Marsden is a novelist and travel writer. His books include The Crossing Place: A Journey Among the Armenians (Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, 1994) and The Spirit-Wrestlers and Other Survivors of the Russian Century (Winner of the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, 1999).
'...masterly account of Chechnya's struggle against 19th-century Tsarist Russia, ominously relevant to today's conflict. Her portrait of Shamyl, the Chechen leader-prophet, was widely admired and Blanch is still consulted by historians.' The Sunday Times 'I can imagine no better introduction to modern Russia.' New York Times Book Review 'The reissue of the classic The Sabres of Paradise is to be warmly applauded. The result of four years of research and local travel, this is a uniquely original and fresh introduction to a forgotten world and in particular to that of the most important colonial war of the 19th Century.' Lawrence Kelly, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and acclaimed author of numerous books on Russian history '...an epic account of Tsarist Russia's attempt to subdue Dagestan in the 1800s.' Mowahid H. Shah, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs; The Great Britain-Russian Journal. Reviewed by Laurence Kelly: "All is conveyed in a rich and evocative style that carries the reader effortlessly through an exceptionally complex and confusing period of history... Blanch... opens vistas which might elude more strictly academic historians".
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