In the spring of 1926, the writer Vita Sackville-West travelled to Persia to visit her husband, Harold Nicolson, who was at the British Legation. Her journey took her through Egypt, India and Iraq and back later that year through the newly-Communist Russia and revolution-torn Poland. The route was circuitous and the pace leisurely, though not without excitement. This is her account of the journey, the descriptions of her adventures being told with characteristic humour. The introduction by her son, Nigel Nicolson, reveals many personal details of the journey which were omitted from the original edition.