DUST IN THE LION'S PAW

by Freya Stark ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 24, 1962

Miss Freya Stark is, or was when the events of this book occured, an imperialist, but an imperialist of the very best sort -- intelligent, literate, equable, and friendly with all sorts of people. The point she seems to have missed, in her consideration with what went wrong in British relations with the Arab world, is that not many imperialists were nearly so nice as she. This book is an account of her work as a propagandist, or ""persuader"" as she liked to think of herself, for the British government in the last war in the Middle East. Widely travelled in the area and fluent in Arabic, she volunteered her services even before the war began and was sent to Ade where she discovered the Italian fascists had been at work before her. In the neighboring Red Sea kingdom of Yemen, she countered prevailing fascist sympathies by showing in all the principal harems films of British military might, thereby effectively reaching the most important persons who considered women below them. Afterwards, she was in Cairo and Bagdad; in Cairo the desert war was raging two hours away by air but one went on meeting one's friends, and in Bagdad she was in the British embassy when it was besieged for a month. In the winter of 1943-44, she travelled to the United States and Canada to try to counteract the force of Zionist opinion on the question of Jewish immigration to Palestine. Her impressions of the controllers of public opinion whom she then met, including the Luces, are most interesting, as is her entire book, rich with her own letters and diaries, and the letters of her many notable and amusing friends.

Pub Date: Jan. 24, 1962

ISBN: 1850897018

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt, Brace & World

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1962

Categories: NONFICTION