Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Lesley Blanch, MBE, FRSL (born June 6, 1904, London died May 7, 2007, Garavan, near Menton, France) was an English writer, fashion editor and writer of history. A scholarly romantic, Blanch attended St. Paul's Girls' School, Hammersmith. She would spend the greater part of her long life travelling about those remote regions her books record so vividly. Her lifelong passion was for Russia and the Middle East. She was, in the words of the historian Philip Mansel, not a school, a trend, or a fashion, but a true original.