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

Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of ArabiaThis "richly textured biography" (Chicago Tribune) inspired the mesmerizing documentary, Letters from Baghdad, soon to air on public television. Here is the story of Gertrude Bell, who explored, mapped, and excavated the Arab world throughout the early twentieth century. Recruited by British intelligence during World War I, she played a crucial role in obtaining the loyalty of Arab leaders, and her connections and information provided the brains to

This "richly textured biography" (Chicago Tribune) inspired the mesmerizing documentary, Letters from Baghdad, soon to air on public television.

Here is the story of Gertrude Bell, who explored, mapped, and excavated the Arab world throughout the early twentieth century. Recruited by British intelligence during World War I, she played a crucial role in obtaining the loyalty of Arab leaders, and her connections and information provided the brains to match T. E. Lawrence's brawn. After the war, she played a major role in creating the modern Middle East and was, at the time, considered the most powerful woman in the British Empire.

In this masterful biography, Janet Wallach shows us the woman behind these achievements-a woman whose passion and defiant independence were at odds with the confined and custom-bound England she left behind. Too long eclipsed by Lawrence, Gertrude Bell emerges at last in her own right as a vital player on the stage of modern history, and as a woman whose life was both a heartbreaking story and a grand adventure.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Anchor Books
Published: 07/12/2005
ISBN: 9781400096190
Pages: 425
Weight: 0.94lbs
Size: 8.12h x 5.26w x 0.95d

Review Citations: Ingram Advance 06/01/2005 pg. 55
New York Times Book Review 10/25/2007 pg. 10
Outside 10/01/2013 pg. 97