'Anyone who reads this book will have a marvellous time. Blanch has written an exceptionally good biography of an exceptionally interesting man. Even if you have never heard of Loti until this minute, even if you never plan to read any of his books, I recommend it to you.' -Noel Perrin, Washington Post '...what makes Loti so extraordinary and this book so enthralling is not that he was an escapist, but that he was an escapologist, getting out of scrapes and away with behaviour that would normally lead to disaster, disgrace, even death...Lesley Blanch is a most congenial biographer for this eccentric man...She has a natural sympathy with people who live out their fantasies... She also has the sense of humor her subject lacks, and is very funny without ever being unkind.' -Gabrielle Annan, New York Review of Books

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 The Sabres of Paradise (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 Mansel's books include Constantinople: City of the World's Desire 1453-1924 and Sultans in Splendour: Monarchs of the Middle East 1869-1945. He is currently writing a history of the Levant.