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

Author: Janet Wallach

Narrator: Jean Gilpin

Unabridged: 20 hr 11 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/04/2012


Synopsis

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 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 passion and intensity to her explorations as she did to her 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 continuing geopolitical importance of the Middle East) and whose life was a grand adventure.

About The Author

A frequent contributor to such publications as The Washington Post Magazine, Janet Wallach is the author of Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell, Chanel: Her Style and Her Life, and three books on the Middle East (co-authored with her husband). She divides her time between New York City and Connecticut.


Reviews

I am sure that there are other biographies of Bell that skip right to her involvement in Mesopotamia, but I appreciated the time Wallach gives to the younger Gertrude Bell. Bell was the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, and granddaughter of the man who brought “modern” iron smelting to Newcastle.......more

Goodreads review by Christopher on March 25, 2023

Janet Wallach's Desert Queen pays tribute to Gertrude Bell, one of the most remarkable women of the 20th Century. Born to a wealthy Durham family, Bell gained a formidable reputation as an archaeologist, translator, world traveler and expert on the Middle East; she brushed elbows with prominent Brit......more