In India her main problem was gangs of young cyclists who jeered, jabbed at her, pulled her hair and grabbed the handlebars. Sensing mounting hysteria one day outside a school, she looked in panic to two adult cyclists who had dismounted to watch but clearly intended to do nothing. The crisis brought out the headmistress of old: "I glared around with a steely eye, and controlling the pitch of my voice with great effort, said slowly and authoritatively, 'Will you kindly step back and let me pass through?' It worked a charm. Whether or not they understood what I said, they recognised the magisterial tone. They quietened instantly and stepped back. 'Thank you,' I said coolly, pushing my bicycle forward and pedalling off with a confident air."  Only at a safe distance did she lean against a tree "until the trembling had stopped".  From then on Anne Mustoe progressed through Malaysia and then America with an aplomb that overcame all setbacks until her return to Watling Street. In A Bike Ride (1992) she recorded that she had cycled 11,552 miles in 14 countries over 439 days, in which £4,898 had been spent on food, accommodation and sundries and £1,127 on fares. She had lost 23lb in weight.  The daughter of a shopkeeper and bookmaker, Anne Revill was born in Nottingham on May 24 1933 and educated at the High School before reading Classics at Girton College, Cambridge. She first worked as a personal assistant in a management training department of GKN engineers in London, then was secretary to Nelson Mustoe, QC, whom she married in 1960, before teaching classics and economics at Francis Holland School in Kensington under Heather Brigstocke. She next became deputy head at Cobham Hall, Kent, before arriving at Saint Felix in 1978.  There she introduced a more rigorous academic regime. Latin was strengthened and Greek reintroduced. Though not a particularly sporty institution, three ex-pupils made a mark at Cambridge, one becoming the first woman golf Blue and another the first winner of a mixed marathon – while a boy, who had been in the sixth form, achieved a boxing Blue.  Anne Mustoe was chairman of the Independent Schools Information Service. Meanwhile, as president of the Girls' Schools Association, she roundly attacked striking teachers for being unprofessional and muddle-headed, pointing out that they were not hurting the government but parents who risked losing their jobs for staying at home to look after their children.  The success of A Bike Ride led her to write Escaping the Winter (1993), a practical guide for those planning long holidays abroad.  But Anne Mustoe was keen to get back on her bike. Lone Traveller (1998) was an account of her second global tour, this time an east-west journey from Rome, via Lisbon to South America, across China (where she was arrested on the Great Wall and spent two days in jail) and home again.  Two Wheels in the Dust (1998) concerned several trips in the Indian subcontinent in which she followed the trail of The Ramayana, the Hindu epic poem; and Che Guevara and the Mountain of Silver (2007) was the tale of a visit to South America along the route of the revolutionary on his motorcycle ride from Buenos Aires. There were also other, shorter trips, which took in the Baltic and the Santiago de Compostela way.  Back in England, Anne Mustoe was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1996. She disliked cycling in London but later became the founder chairman of National Byways, a 4,500-mile cycle route around England and parts of Scotland and Wales.  Anne Mustoe set off on what was to be her last ride in May, still riding her trusty Condor, and was in Aleppo, Syria, when she fell ill and died in hospital on November 10.
Anne Mustoe, who has died in Syria aged 76, gave up her career as headmistress   of an independent girls' school to cycle around the world and describe her   journeys in a series of lively books.