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Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations

by Georgina Howell

Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

A marvelous tale of an adventurous life of great historical import She has been called the female Lawrence of Arabia, which, while not inaccurate, fails to give Gertrude Bell her due. She was at one time the most powerful woman in the British Empire: a nation builder, the driving force behind the creation of modern-day Iraq. Born in 1868 into a world of privilege, Bell turned her back on Victorian society, choosing to read history at Oxford and going on to become an archaeologist, spy, Arabist, linguist, author (of Persian Pictures, The Desert and the Sown, and many other collections), poet, photographer, and legendary mountaineer (she took off her skirt and climbed the Alps in her underclothes).

She traveled the globe several times, but her passion was the desert, where she traveled with only her guns and her servants. Her vast knowledge of the region made her indispensable to the Cairo Intelligence Office of the British government during World War I. She advised the Viceroy of India; then, as an army major, she traveled to the front lines in Mesopotamia. There, she supported the creation of an autonomous Arab nation for Iraq, promoting and manipulating the election of King Faisal to the throne and helping to draw the borders of the fledgling state. Gertrude Bell, vividly told and impeccably researched by Georgina Howell, is a richly compelling portrait of a woman who transcended the restrictions of her class and times, and in so doing, created a remarkable and enduring legacy.

Synopsis:

Gertrude Bell was at one time the most powerful woman in the British Empire and was the driving force behind the creation of modern-day Iraq. This work is a richly compelling portrait of a woman who transcended the restrictions of her class and times and created a remarkable and enduring legacy.

About the Author

Georgina Howell has worked in magazine journalism since the age of seventeen. She has written for Vanity Fair and American Vogue, and has worked at The Observer, British Vogue, The Tatler, and The Sunday Times. She lives in London and Brittany.

Product Details

ISBN:
9780374531355
Subtitle:
Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations
Author:
Howell, Georgina
Publisher:
Farrar Straus Giroux
Subject:
Historical
Subject:
Historical - British
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Political
Subject:
Colonial administrators -- Great Britain.
Subject:
Bell, Gertrude Lowthian
Edition Description:
First
Publication Date:
April 2008
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
481
Dimensions:
8.30x5.45x.92 in. .99 lbs.

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