Volume 1: The furnace and the cup 1914-30, Volume 2: The open door 1930-35, Volume 3: The growth of danger 1935-39, Volume 4: Bridge of the Levant 1940-43, Volume 5: New worlds for old 1943-46, Volume 6: The broken road 1947-52, Volume 7: Some talk of Alexander 1952-59, Volume 8: Traveller's epilogue 1960-80. Dame Freya Madeline Stark, Mrs Perowne, (31 January 1893 ? 9 May 1993) was a British explorer and travel writer. She wrote more than two dozen books on her travels in the Middle East and Afghanistan, as well as several autobiographical works and essays. She was one of the first non-Arabians to travel through the southern Arabian Deserts