Synopses & Reviews
Turning her back on her privileged life in Victorian England, Gertrude Bell (1868-1926), fired by her innate curiosity, journeyed the world and became fascinated with all things Arab. Traveling the length andbreadth of the Arab region, armed with a love for its language and its people, she not only produced several enormously popular books based on her experiences but became instrumental to the British foreign office. WhenWorld War I erupted, and the British needed the loyalty of the Arab leaders, it was Gertrude Bell's work and connections that helped provided the brain for T. E. Lawrence's military brawn. After the war she participated inboth the Paris and Cairo conferences, played a major role in creating the modern Middle East, and was generally considered the most powerful woman in the British Empire.
In thisincident-packed biography, Janet Wallach reveals a woman whose achievements and independent spirit were especially remarkable for her times, and who brought the same passion and intensity to her explorations as she did toher rich romantic life. Too long eclipsed by Lawrence's fame, Gertrude Bell emerges in this first major biography as a woman whose accomplishments rank as crucial to world history (especially in light of the continuinggeopolitical importance of the Middle East) and whose life was a grand adventure.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Synopsis
Subtitled Adventurer, adviser to kings, ally of Lawrence of Arabia', this book easily could be a work of fiction. In it, Janet Wallach describes the life of Gertrude Bell, a lone Victorian woman travelling the Arabian sands with no-one but local guides, conversing with powerful sheikhs and chieftains, exploring and recording antiquities, playing a vital role for the British in World War I, and a friend and muse of T E Lawrence. Later referred to as the Desert Queen', the unofficial queen of Iraq, she was an important figure in bringing stability to post-war Iraq and for this reason her name has resurfaced recently as, once more, the world tries to do the same. This book, revised in 2004 and now in paperback, tells of Bell's background and more especially her life in the Middle East, the people she met and influenced and her legacy for the country, including her foundation of the Baghdad Museum.