In the early sixties, Marilyn Stafford spent over a year in Lebanon and became fascinated with the country and its people. She travelled extensively, journeying to the most remote villages and recording scenes of everyday life. This album is a selection of 120 of these outstanding photographs. Although there are some architectural scenes and views of towns and villages, the main focus is on the Lebanese people and their way of life: shopkeepers and soups, weddings and religious festivities, cafés and night life, fortune-tellers and street urchins . . . In her personal account of a vibrant society, Stafford reveals a land of contrasts - an intricate blend of east and west, tradition and modernity, which gave Lebanon its unique identity. Stafford"s work is far more than a nostalgic remembrance of a Lebanon that was. It is a beautiful and evocative photographic record of a society that is often misrepresented and misunderstood. Even without the war, this book would have been an important contribution to the illustrated modern history of Lebanon. Now,it is an invaluable document in its own right.