Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations.
Published by Faber, Strauss and Giroux, New York 2007. It's a fine biography of a remarkable, courageous, wise, foresighted, and utterly determined Englishwoman. Born to a prosperous Co. Durham family, (wealthy industrialists with a liberal conscience), she obtained a First in History at Oxford in just two years; traveled in Europe and became a renowned mountaineer (in the days before crampons were invented, and women climbers were rare). She was fluent in six languages. But her passion became what we used to call the Near East, or Mesopotamia: the modern lands of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Israel and Palestine. There she traveled the great deserts, seeking and exploring ancient archaeological sites; making maps of the ancient desert cities and camel routes. She might have gone down in history as a great archaeologist, but Gertrude Bell could not be placed in a convenient small box. ...
