Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell : Adventurer, Advisor to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia - Softcover

Recounts the life of Gertrude Bell, an Englishwoman adventurer in the style of Beryl Markham and Isak Dinesen, who explored parts of the Arab world around the time of World War I and helped create the modern Middle East. 25,000 first printing.

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 and breadth 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. When World 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 in both 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 this incident-packed biography, Janet Wallach reveals a woman whose achievements and independent spirit were especially remarkable for her times, and who brought the same passio