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Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia
A biography of the woman who, indirectly, was the catalyst for many of the troubles in the Middle East, including the Gulf War. In 1918, Gertrude Bell drew the region's proposed boundaries on a piece of tracing paper. Her qualifications for doing so were her extensive travel, her fluency in both Persian and Arabic, and her relationships with sheiks and tribal and religious leaders. She also possessed an ability to understand the subtle and indirect politeness of the culture, something many of her colonialist comrades were oblivious to. As a self-made statesman her sex was an asset, enabling her to bypass the ladder of protocol and dive into the business of building an Empire.
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First published August 1, 1996
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October 18, 2015
An excellent account of a fascinating woman who was both a product of her times and one who broke new ground for accomplishments in a male dominated world. Bell’s passion for the culture and peoples of the Middle East served the British Empire well for intelligence and liaison work during World War 1, and she had a major impact in setting the path toward Arab self-rule, most notably in the establishment of Iraq and Jordan under monarchies of the Hussein family. Bell is best known for her work with T.E. Lawrence during the war for helping foment and support Arab revolt against the Ottoman Turks and for her collaboration with him to get Faisal placed first on the throne of Syria and later Mesopotamia (aka Iraq).
Even without being Bell’s importance in world shaping, her story his worth experiencing in Wallach’s telling. She covers closely her personal metamorphosis from obedient Victorian daughter of an wealthy industrialist to a modern self-determined woman who qualified as what she termed a Person with a capital “P”. Wallach does a masterly job at covering the influences of Bell’s upbringing on her personality and life choices without resorting to the discredited methods of psychohistory. The death of her mother at age three is inferred to contribute to her lifelong intensive bond with her father as well as to self-reliance. At home in a rural area of Northumbria near the family factories, she developed a love of nature, rock climbing, horse riding, and gardening. Her recourse to reading led from the allure of “The Arabian Nights” to poetry, biographies and histories of other cultures. But she chaffed under the priggish control of her French stepmother, a writer of operas, and ended up getting sent away to boarding school. She took to scholarship so well she was able to talk her father into going off to study history at Oxford, one of very few women to achieve a degree there.
After college, the problem of her not finding a marriage partner was becoming an embarrassment:
She was brash and immature, and in spite of her dazzling scholastic achievements Gertrude had failed the most important test of all. Unlike her two friends from home, she had no one to ask for her hand in marriage. She was twenty years old, a snob, a bluestocking, a woman with an “attitude”. Her haughtiness and self-importance hardly appealed to eligible young men, and those who dared to court her were soon dismissed.
Her parents persuaded her to go to live with an aunt married to a diplomat in Bucharest, both to “get rid of her Oxfordy manner” and to keep up the search for a worldly, upper class husband (the one boyfriend she picked at home was not wealthy enough for father Hugh). I treasure the visual picture Wallach creates for Bell at this point, which seems far from dry, academic writing complained of by some reviewers:
As Oxford had been a school for her mind, Romania would be a school for her manners. Corseted in whalebone and steel, pulled into an elaborate decollete gown, she learned how to flirt with her ostrich fan, puff on her cigarette and dine on caviar and champagne, to refrain from biting her hands (a family habit) and from twirling her bangs around her finger and to keep from blurting out everything that came into her head.
Various early trips she took, such as to Constantinople and Tehran, helped spur her interest in Middle Eastern cultures and archeology and to speak and read Persian, Arabic, and Turkish. She met Lawrence, as well as her future boss in the spy business, Hogarth at a dig in Mesopotamia. Her forays into the desert led her to befriend the leaders of diverse Beduoin tribes, sheikhs, and princes of the vast territories. Despite her being an unveiled woman with the wrong religion, they received her surprisingly well. She somehow charmed them with her boldness and brilliant mind, in effect as an honorary man. The exception was her brief imprisonment by a prince of the Rashid clan which controlled the Hejaz region of the future Saudi Arabia flanking the Red Sea. In all she made six trips over 12 years and wrote five books ranging among the topics of ancient cultures, architecture, and translations of Persian poetry.
Despite the discomforts of brutal sun and chilly nights, fleas, scorpions, snakes, and blowing sand, she truly loved the desert. For her it meant escape:
To those bred under an elaborate social order few such moments of exhilaration can come as that which stands at the threshold of wild travel. The gates of the enclosed garden are thrown open, the chain at the entrance to the sanctuary is lowered … and, like the man in the fairy story, you feel the bands break that were riveted about your heart.
When war finally broke out, Hogarth called her to serve with him at the Arab Bureau in Cairo. She worked hard to prove herself through deep knowledge of the geography and people that lay between the Turks and the obvious targets of the Suez Canal or the British oil patch in the Basrah province of Mesopotamia. She and Lawrence eventually garnered respect and were able to help shape strategies for supporting the Arab revolt. Because all operations involving money and troops in the Middle East were under control of the British Viceroy of India, she got tapped to use her connections to sway their masters in Delhi to their thinking, which was a hard sell due to concerns of the Muslims in India with access to the holy sites in Arabia. She also served as a communications liaison with the British intelligence office in London. She wrote masterful position papers infused with the history and politics of the Arab peoples. After the death of the one serious love of her life at Gallipoli, a married man named Doughy-White, she threw herself even more intensely into her work.
It took the India Expeditionary Force a long time to take Baghdad. A large force was trapped at a bend in the Tigris River, and the Siege of Kut eventually led to the surrender of 13,000 British and Indian troops, over half of whom died in captivity. When Baghdad was finally taken in 1917, the Arab Bureau set up shop there under the stewardship of Percy Cox, who was another key mentor for Bell. She loved the multicultural mix of this ancient city and made it her home from then until she died in 1926.
At the Paris peace conference of 1919, she and Lawrence lobbied hard but unsuccessfully to make Faisal a king of Mesopotamia, but they differed over how fast it would take for Britain to relinquish control. While at one point she referred in letters to Lawrence as her “beloved boy”, at another point she tagged him as “an inverted megalomaniac.” After so much focus on deciding the fate of Germany and Ottoman holdings in Europe, the leaders at the conference postponed final decisions on the Arab lands beyond Central Arabia, instead choosing to leave British and French occupation in place and large areas under their temporary administration. It was impossible to sort out the conflicts between the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement between England and France in 1916 and the promises of an independent Arabia from Palestine to Persia made to the Hussein family in 1915. At a powwow called by Churchill in Cairo in 1921, Bell and Lawrence had to accept the outcome that the French were to retain control of much of Greater Syria and Lebanon in exchange for British mandates in Palestine, Jordan, and Mesopotamia. Abdullah Hussein was made king of Jordan and Faisal, recently deposed in Syria, as titular king of Iraq. As oil had been discovered in Mosul, that province with a Kurd majority was added to the new nation. Bell essentially became an advisor to Faisal and worked to persuade various leaders to support him in a referendum of support that was held.
Despite this outcome, the various unruly factions took a long time to see Faisal as anything more than a British puppet. She died before independence was granted to Iraq in 1932. Some say Wallach doesn’t take Bell to task for her role in setting artificial boundaries that put together separate antagonistic provinces dominated by Sunni, Shiite, and Kurd peoples, a source of instability and violent contention forever after. The Americans had to relearn the same lesson after their toppling of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003. To me Wallach makes clear that above all else Bell was a British Imperialist. On the scheme of Iraq, she was a true believer that an independent Iraq with all three regions was in the best interests of both the Arabs and that of British national interests. The British hand on the oil spigot didn’t end until they were violently booted out in the late 50’s.
This book was a great complement to my reading of Korda’s wonderful biography Lawrence, “Hero”. I can now see the truth to one characterization of Bell being the brains behind Lawrence’s initiatives. Bell also appeared for me as a colorful presence in Mary Doria Russell’s novel of an Ohio housewife on the scene at the Cairo Conference, “Dreamers of the Day.” Now I have a more complete story. This book also puts more of a human and cultural perspective on the picture of Middle Eastern history I got from Yergin’s massive and masterful history of oil, “The Prize”. Thus, this was a worthy read to help cure a person’s ignorance on how the current problems in the Middle East got set in motion. But it was most satisfying as a portrait of a strong, ambitious woman and its revelations of the core of her humanity and apparent paradoxes of character. I don’t know if the other biographies of her are of equal or better caliber or if the movie of her life starring Nicole Kidman has any virtues.
Churchill, Bell, and Lawrence on a camel break to see the Pyramids at the Cairo Conference in 1921.
Even without being Bell’s importance in world shaping, her story his worth experiencing in Wallach’s telling. She covers closely her personal metamorphosis from obedient Victorian daughter of an wealthy industrialist to a modern self-determined woman who qualified as what she termed a Person with a capital “P”. Wallach does a masterly job at covering the influences of Bell’s upbringing on her personality and life choices without resorting to the discredited methods of psychohistory. The death of her mother at age three is inferred to contribute to her lifelong intensive bond with her father as well as to self-reliance. At home in a rural area of Northumbria near the family factories, she developed a love of nature, rock climbing, horse riding, and gardening. Her recourse to reading led from the allure of “The Arabian Nights” to poetry, biographies and histories of other cultures. But she chaffed under the priggish control of her French stepmother, a writer of operas, and ended up getting sent away to boarding school. She took to scholarship so well she was able to talk her father into going off to study history at Oxford, one of very few women to achieve a degree there.
After college, the problem of her not finding a marriage partner was becoming an embarrassment:
She was brash and immature, and in spite of her dazzling scholastic achievements Gertrude had failed the most important test of all. Unlike her two friends from home, she had no one to ask for her hand in marriage. She was twenty years old, a snob, a bluestocking, a woman with an “attitude”. Her haughtiness and self-importance hardly appealed to eligible young men, and those who dared to court her were soon dismissed.
Her parents persuaded her to go to live with an aunt married to a diplomat in Bucharest, both to “get rid of her Oxfordy manner” and to keep up the search for a worldly, upper class husband (the one boyfriend she picked at home was not wealthy enough for father Hugh). I treasure the visual picture Wallach creates for Bell at this point, which seems far from dry, academic writing complained of by some reviewers:
As Oxford had been a school for her mind, Romania would be a school for her manners. Corseted in whalebone and steel, pulled into an elaborate decollete gown, she learned how to flirt with her ostrich fan, puff on her cigarette and dine on caviar and champagne, to refrain from biting her hands (a family habit) and from twirling her bangs around her finger and to keep from blurting out everything that came into her head.
Various early trips she took, such as to Constantinople and Tehran, helped spur her interest in Middle Eastern cultures and archeology and to speak and read Persian, Arabic, and Turkish. She met Lawrence, as well as her future boss in the spy business, Hogarth at a dig in Mesopotamia. Her forays into the desert led her to befriend the leaders of diverse Beduoin tribes, sheikhs, and princes of the vast territories. Despite her being an unveiled woman with the wrong religion, they received her surprisingly well. She somehow charmed them with her boldness and brilliant mind, in effect as an honorary man. The exception was her brief imprisonment by a prince of the Rashid clan which controlled the Hejaz region of the future Saudi Arabia flanking the Red Sea. In all she made six trips over 12 years and wrote five books ranging among the topics of ancient cultures, architecture, and translations of Persian poetry.
Despite the discomforts of brutal sun and chilly nights, fleas, scorpions, snakes, and blowing sand, she truly loved the desert. For her it meant escape:
To those bred under an elaborate social order few such moments of exhilaration can come as that which stands at the threshold of wild travel. The gates of the enclosed garden are thrown open, the chain at the entrance to the sanctuary is lowered … and, like the man in the fairy story, you feel the bands break that were riveted about your heart.
When war finally broke out, Hogarth called her to serve with him at the Arab Bureau in Cairo. She worked hard to prove herself through deep knowledge of the geography and people that lay between the Turks and the obvious targets of the Suez Canal or the British oil patch in the Basrah province of Mesopotamia. She and Lawrence eventually garnered respect and were able to help shape strategies for supporting the Arab revolt. Because all operations involving money and troops in the Middle East were under control of the British Viceroy of India, she got tapped to use her connections to sway their masters in Delhi to their thinking, which was a hard sell due to concerns of the Muslims in India with access to the holy sites in Arabia. She also served as a communications liaison with the British intelligence office in London. She wrote masterful position papers infused with the history and politics of the Arab peoples. After the death of the one serious love of her life at Gallipoli, a married man named Doughy-White, she threw herself even more intensely into her work.
It took the India Expeditionary Force a long time to take Baghdad. A large force was trapped at a bend in the Tigris River, and the Siege of Kut eventually led to the surrender of 13,000 British and Indian troops, over half of whom died in captivity. When Baghdad was finally taken in 1917, the Arab Bureau set up shop there under the stewardship of Percy Cox, who was another key mentor for Bell. She loved the multicultural mix of this ancient city and made it her home from then until she died in 1926.
At the Paris peace conference of 1919, she and Lawrence lobbied hard but unsuccessfully to make Faisal a king of Mesopotamia, but they differed over how fast it would take for Britain to relinquish control. While at one point she referred in letters to Lawrence as her “beloved boy”, at another point she tagged him as “an inverted megalomaniac.” After so much focus on deciding the fate of Germany and Ottoman holdings in Europe, the leaders at the conference postponed final decisions on the Arab lands beyond Central Arabia, instead choosing to leave British and French occupation in place and large areas under their temporary administration. It was impossible to sort out the conflicts between the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement between England and France in 1916 and the promises of an independent Arabia from Palestine to Persia made to the Hussein family in 1915. At a powwow called by Churchill in Cairo in 1921, Bell and Lawrence had to accept the outcome that the French were to retain control of much of Greater Syria and Lebanon in exchange for British mandates in Palestine, Jordan, and Mesopotamia. Abdullah Hussein was made king of Jordan and Faisal, recently deposed in Syria, as titular king of Iraq. As oil had been discovered in Mosul, that province with a Kurd majority was added to the new nation. Bell essentially became an advisor to Faisal and worked to persuade various leaders to support him in a referendum of support that was held.
Despite this outcome, the various unruly factions took a long time to see Faisal as anything more than a British puppet. She died before independence was granted to Iraq in 1932. Some say Wallach doesn’t take Bell to task for her role in setting artificial boundaries that put together separate antagonistic provinces dominated by Sunni, Shiite, and Kurd peoples, a source of instability and violent contention forever after. The Americans had to relearn the same lesson after their toppling of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003. To me Wallach makes clear that above all else Bell was a British Imperialist. On the scheme of Iraq, she was a true believer that an independent Iraq with all three regions was in the best interests of both the Arabs and that of British national interests. The British hand on the oil spigot didn’t end until they were violently booted out in the late 50’s.
This book was a great complement to my reading of Korda’s wonderful biography Lawrence, “Hero”. I can now see the truth to one characterization of Bell being the brains behind Lawrence’s initiatives. Bell also appeared for me as a colorful presence in Mary Doria Russell’s novel of an Ohio housewife on the scene at the Cairo Conference, “Dreamers of the Day.” Now I have a more complete story. This book also puts more of a human and cultural perspective on the picture of Middle Eastern history I got from Yergin’s massive and masterful history of oil, “The Prize”. Thus, this was a worthy read to help cure a person’s ignorance on how the current problems in the Middle East got set in motion. But it was most satisfying as a portrait of a strong, ambitious woman and its revelations of the core of her humanity and apparent paradoxes of character. I don’t know if the other biographies of her are of equal or better caliber or if the movie of her life starring Nicole Kidman has any virtues.
Churchill, Bell, and Lawrence on a camel break to see the Pyramids at the Cairo Conference in 1921.
July 22, 2022
I really enjoyed this book, even if it was a challenging read. Challenging because there was so much information which was new to me.
I learned about the transformation of Mesopotamia into the new nation of Iraq. I learned about the transformation of the Middle East as a result of the First World War. I learned about Gertrude Bell. I needed the depth of this book to really understand. I am glad I read this book rather than what I originally sought: Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia, but which I could not get. The life of Gertrude Bell was for me even more interesting than that of the renowned T. E. Lawrence. She deserves much more recognition than she has been given. Although I enjoyed Dreamers of the Day, this book, Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia, gives much, much more. There is no comparison between the two even if I have given both four stars. Keep in mind that one is fiction and the other non-fiction!
What makes this book remarkable is that it teaches both history, WW1 and the Middle East, and is a biographical exposé on a remarkable woman: Gertrude Bell. Other books of course discuss people in a historical setting, but here we get great depth into the personality of the woman as well as the mark she left on history. I am often drawn to biographical books, but less frequently is the historical aspect as fascinating as the biographical. Here is what is important: many historical details are given, but how one historical event leads to another is easy to follow. History is made simple. And then there is Gertrude Bell. Not only is what she accomplished in her lifetime fascinating, but also her personality is exceptional. She was scathingly blunt. She was exceptionally intelligent. She had such moral integrity. She never gave up until ….well I cannot tell you that! Other people may not like her. I did. When things went wrong she gritted her teeth and went on. She was both feminine and soft and strong as steel. And yet with her father she was always a child, even at fifty! She wanted a husband and children and yet never married. She was a woman of her time, the Victorian age, but repeatedly defied social restrictions; her closest friends were all men. She was British through and through, but her real home was in the East (Iraq). She was certainly a queen of the desert. She was a woman of contradictions. After reading this book I know who she was, not just what she accomplished.
I had difficulty with the Arabian names, but that is because I was listening to an audiobook. The narrator, Jean Gilpin, must be complimented in always reading slowly; there is a lot to absorb. Gilpin's reading is steady and unhurried when covering historical themes. You also hear in the narrator's voice different inflections when reading Gertrude's sentimental, heartfelt letters to her father or lovers and her critical, blunt retorts to less favored acquaintances. The reading follows the lines of the author well, only occasionally over dramatizing the lines.
I wondered sometimes if what we were being told was favorably biased in Gertrude’s favor. Quotes from her letters are numerous. We are more often given her thoughts, rather than opposing views. Much of the book feels in this way almost autobiographical, and how balanced is that? I believe this is why I found the book short of amazing and why I gave it four rather than five stars.
If you enjoy biographies of historical figures, this is a must read. I highly recommend it.
I learned about the transformation of Mesopotamia into the new nation of Iraq. I learned about the transformation of the Middle East as a result of the First World War. I learned about Gertrude Bell. I needed the depth of this book to really understand. I am glad I read this book rather than what I originally sought: Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia, but which I could not get. The life of Gertrude Bell was for me even more interesting than that of the renowned T. E. Lawrence. She deserves much more recognition than she has been given. Although I enjoyed Dreamers of the Day, this book, Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia, gives much, much more. There is no comparison between the two even if I have given both four stars. Keep in mind that one is fiction and the other non-fiction!
What makes this book remarkable is that it teaches both history, WW1 and the Middle East, and is a biographical exposé on a remarkable woman: Gertrude Bell. Other books of course discuss people in a historical setting, but here we get great depth into the personality of the woman as well as the mark she left on history. I am often drawn to biographical books, but less frequently is the historical aspect as fascinating as the biographical. Here is what is important: many historical details are given, but how one historical event leads to another is easy to follow. History is made simple. And then there is Gertrude Bell. Not only is what she accomplished in her lifetime fascinating, but also her personality is exceptional. She was scathingly blunt. She was exceptionally intelligent. She had such moral integrity. She never gave up until ….well I cannot tell you that! Other people may not like her. I did. When things went wrong she gritted her teeth and went on. She was both feminine and soft and strong as steel. And yet with her father she was always a child, even at fifty! She wanted a husband and children and yet never married. She was a woman of her time, the Victorian age, but repeatedly defied social restrictions; her closest friends were all men. She was British through and through, but her real home was in the East (Iraq). She was certainly a queen of the desert. She was a woman of contradictions. After reading this book I know who she was, not just what she accomplished.
I had difficulty with the Arabian names, but that is because I was listening to an audiobook. The narrator, Jean Gilpin, must be complimented in always reading slowly; there is a lot to absorb. Gilpin's reading is steady and unhurried when covering historical themes. You also hear in the narrator's voice different inflections when reading Gertrude's sentimental, heartfelt letters to her father or lovers and her critical, blunt retorts to less favored acquaintances. The reading follows the lines of the author well, only occasionally over dramatizing the lines.
I wondered sometimes if what we were being told was favorably biased in Gertrude’s favor. Quotes from her letters are numerous. We are more often given her thoughts, rather than opposing views. Much of the book feels in this way almost autobiographical, and how balanced is that? I believe this is why I found the book short of amazing and why I gave it four rather than five stars.
If you enjoy biographies of historical figures, this is a must read. I highly recommend it.
June 20, 2018
I loved this biography of Gertrude Bell! A friend had recommended it knowing how much I like travelogues, history and stories of amazing women, and this book ticks all of those boxes.
I listened to this on audio, performed admirably by Jean Gilpen, and I was so fascinated by this "queen of the desert" that I raced through the book. Highly recommended.
Opening Passage
"She was always surrounded by men: rich men, powerful men, diplomats, sheikhs, lovers and mentors. To picture her you had only to envision a red-haired Victorian woman with ramrod posture, piercing green eyes, a long pointed nose and a fragile figure fashionably dressed, and, whether in London, Cairo, Baghdad or the desert, always at the center of a circle of men. So it was only natural that on the drizzly evening of April 4, 1927, less than a year after her death, those who gathered at London's Royal Geographical Society to pay her tribute were mostly men. Resplendent in white tie and tails, beribboned medals flanking their chests, they marched through the halls recounting their explorations and hers. 'Gertrude Bell,' 'Gertrude Bell,' the name flew around the room. She had been, they seemed to agree, the most powerful woman in the British Empire in the years after World War I. Hushed voices called her the 'uncrowned queen of Iraq.' They whispered that she was the brains behind Lawrence of Arabia, and a few knowingly ventured that she had drawn the lines in the sand for Winston Churchill."
I listened to this on audio, performed admirably by Jean Gilpen, and I was so fascinated by this "queen of the desert" that I raced through the book. Highly recommended.
Opening Passage
"She was always surrounded by men: rich men, powerful men, diplomats, sheikhs, lovers and mentors. To picture her you had only to envision a red-haired Victorian woman with ramrod posture, piercing green eyes, a long pointed nose and a fragile figure fashionably dressed, and, whether in London, Cairo, Baghdad or the desert, always at the center of a circle of men. So it was only natural that on the drizzly evening of April 4, 1927, less than a year after her death, those who gathered at London's Royal Geographical Society to pay her tribute were mostly men. Resplendent in white tie and tails, beribboned medals flanking their chests, they marched through the halls recounting their explorations and hers. 'Gertrude Bell,' 'Gertrude Bell,' the name flew around the room. She had been, they seemed to agree, the most powerful woman in the British Empire in the years after World War I. Hushed voices called her the 'uncrowned queen of Iraq.' They whispered that she was the brains behind Lawrence of Arabia, and a few knowingly ventured that she had drawn the lines in the sand for Winston Churchill."
March 12, 2012
"Great persons, like great empires, leave their mark on history."
There's a photo in this book of the 1921 Cairo Conference, called by Winston Churchill to figure out what to do with the newly-independent Arabia, and of the forty delegates pictured, there is one woman: Gertrude Bell. She was a colleague of Winston Churchill and TE Lawrence, and a close personal adviser to King Faisel (better known as Alec Guiness in Lawrence of Arabia, a four hour yawnfest of a movie that features Gertrude Bell exactly zero times). How does a woman born in 1868 end up traveling to parts of the Middle East that have never been explored by white men before, become a vital part of the British government in Arabia, and create the borders of modern day Iraq? The short answer is: with a hell of a lot of determination, curiosity, spirit, and (to be fair) Daddy's money. But mostly the first three, because damn this lady was impressive.
Gertrude Bell, after attending Oxford (and being one of the few women to do so) deciding that traveling would be more fun than getting married, so she set off for the Middle East and began essentially wandering around waiting to run into something cool. This is the sort of person Gertrude Bell was: when her guides told her, "We can't go east, there's a super scary warlord who lives there and we should avoid his land" she replied, "East it is, then!" and then the next thing you know she and the warlord would be having tea and becoming friends.
This ability of Bell's - to wander wherever the hell she felt like, meeting the locals on her way, came in handy when the British government started messing in Middle Eastern politics in the early 1900's. They needed someone who knew the landscape and the locals, and there was actually only one person who fit the bill. So Gertrude Bell became the Oriental Secretary in Iraq, and ended up helping to create the modern Middle East (and the Iraq Museum - did I mention she dabbled in archaeology? and by "dabbled" I mean discovered and documented ruins and published several books and articles?). All of this, despite the fact that she never had any real interest in politics. As she wrote to a friend, "I shan't go on running the affairs of Mesopatamia...but for the moment there wasn't anyone else to do it and as there wasn't a second to lose I just upped and did it."
Wallach's account of Bell's life is fascinating, well-researched and (because Bell wrote a shit-ton of letters and diaries in her lifetime) very thorough and detailed. In addition to being a complex portrait of a woman who is way less well-known than she deserves to be, Wallach's book also serves as a good introduction to the clusterfuck that is the modern-day Middle East. While reading about the British government's attempts to set up a stable government in Iraq, it was downright eerie to spot the modern parallels to current American affairs in the region: "While Gertrude and John Van Ess discussed the fate of Iraq, the country was also the topic at Whitehall. A strong contingent felt that Mesopotamia had already cost Britain too much money and too many lives (there were 17,000 British and 44,000 Indian troops in Iraq, and combined with the 23,000 troops in Palestine it was costing England 35.5 million pounds a year to keep the garrisons in place), but few could deny Mesopotamia's importance as a future source of oil."
Mark Twain was right: history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes.
The book is exciting on every page, with political intrigue, feuding desert tribes, romance, and entire nations being formed through the influence of a handful of people. In fact, the story is so engrossing that it's easy to miss the underlying sadness of the book. Gertrude Bell's life may have been exciting, and she may have been a great historical figure, but she herself was actually a profoundly depressing person. She had no children and never married, and not by choice - her first love was rejected by her family for being middle class, her second romantic interest was a) already married and b) killed in World War I, and when she fell in love a third time, the man refused to marry her. She had many work colleagues but very few friends, owing to her caustic personality (in her defense, being a single woman who traveled the desert by herself and made her own way in the world leaves one with very few fucks to give), and often wrote in her letters about how lonely she was.
Gertrude doesn't even come across as a very nice person in this book - it's made pretty clear that she was only able to accomplish all of her great feats because she was a rich girl with nothing better to do who traveled the world on her father's dime, and her attitude towards Middle Eastern locals can be optimistically described as "patronizing." She once describes Arabs as being "like very old children" and believes that they aren't capable of governing themselves. Although she studied Arabic and Turkish for hours a day, she was an atheist who had no interest in learning about Islam, and didn't see any reason to visit the Arab women in their harems. (luckily she changed her tune towards the end of her life, becoming more interested in harem life and even admitting that the Arabs are better off running their own government) Most damning, Gertrude Bell was an anti-suffrage supporter. You read that right: a woman who attended Oxford in the 1800s, published books and articles, and was a vital political asset in the Middle East believed that women shouldn't have the right to vote.
If I were to meet Gertrude Bell in real life, I'm sure I would dislike her. She was proud, demanding, stubborn, hypocritical, and dismissive. But her life is a fascinating one, and she deserves much more credit than the world has given her.
There's a photo in this book of the 1921 Cairo Conference, called by Winston Churchill to figure out what to do with the newly-independent Arabia, and of the forty delegates pictured, there is one woman: Gertrude Bell. She was a colleague of Winston Churchill and TE Lawrence, and a close personal adviser to King Faisel (better known as Alec Guiness in Lawrence of Arabia, a four hour yawnfest of a movie that features Gertrude Bell exactly zero times). How does a woman born in 1868 end up traveling to parts of the Middle East that have never been explored by white men before, become a vital part of the British government in Arabia, and create the borders of modern day Iraq? The short answer is: with a hell of a lot of determination, curiosity, spirit, and (to be fair) Daddy's money. But mostly the first three, because damn this lady was impressive.
Gertrude Bell, after attending Oxford (and being one of the few women to do so) deciding that traveling would be more fun than getting married, so she set off for the Middle East and began essentially wandering around waiting to run into something cool. This is the sort of person Gertrude Bell was: when her guides told her, "We can't go east, there's a super scary warlord who lives there and we should avoid his land" she replied, "East it is, then!" and then the next thing you know she and the warlord would be having tea and becoming friends.
This ability of Bell's - to wander wherever the hell she felt like, meeting the locals on her way, came in handy when the British government started messing in Middle Eastern politics in the early 1900's. They needed someone who knew the landscape and the locals, and there was actually only one person who fit the bill. So Gertrude Bell became the Oriental Secretary in Iraq, and ended up helping to create the modern Middle East (and the Iraq Museum - did I mention she dabbled in archaeology? and by "dabbled" I mean discovered and documented ruins and published several books and articles?). All of this, despite the fact that she never had any real interest in politics. As she wrote to a friend, "I shan't go on running the affairs of Mesopatamia...but for the moment there wasn't anyone else to do it and as there wasn't a second to lose I just upped and did it."
Wallach's account of Bell's life is fascinating, well-researched and (because Bell wrote a shit-ton of letters and diaries in her lifetime) very thorough and detailed. In addition to being a complex portrait of a woman who is way less well-known than she deserves to be, Wallach's book also serves as a good introduction to the clusterfuck that is the modern-day Middle East. While reading about the British government's attempts to set up a stable government in Iraq, it was downright eerie to spot the modern parallels to current American affairs in the region: "While Gertrude and John Van Ess discussed the fate of Iraq, the country was also the topic at Whitehall. A strong contingent felt that Mesopotamia had already cost Britain too much money and too many lives (there were 17,000 British and 44,000 Indian troops in Iraq, and combined with the 23,000 troops in Palestine it was costing England 35.5 million pounds a year to keep the garrisons in place), but few could deny Mesopotamia's importance as a future source of oil."
Mark Twain was right: history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes.
The book is exciting on every page, with political intrigue, feuding desert tribes, romance, and entire nations being formed through the influence of a handful of people. In fact, the story is so engrossing that it's easy to miss the underlying sadness of the book. Gertrude Bell's life may have been exciting, and she may have been a great historical figure, but she herself was actually a profoundly depressing person. She had no children and never married, and not by choice - her first love was rejected by her family for being middle class, her second romantic interest was a) already married and b) killed in World War I, and when she fell in love a third time, the man refused to marry her. She had many work colleagues but very few friends, owing to her caustic personality (in her defense, being a single woman who traveled the desert by herself and made her own way in the world leaves one with very few fucks to give), and often wrote in her letters about how lonely she was.
Gertrude doesn't even come across as a very nice person in this book - it's made pretty clear that she was only able to accomplish all of her great feats because she was a rich girl with nothing better to do who traveled the world on her father's dime, and her attitude towards Middle Eastern locals can be optimistically described as "patronizing." She once describes Arabs as being "like very old children" and believes that they aren't capable of governing themselves. Although she studied Arabic and Turkish for hours a day, she was an atheist who had no interest in learning about Islam, and didn't see any reason to visit the Arab women in their harems. (luckily she changed her tune towards the end of her life, becoming more interested in harem life and even admitting that the Arabs are better off running their own government) Most damning, Gertrude Bell was an anti-suffrage supporter. You read that right: a woman who attended Oxford in the 1800s, published books and articles, and was a vital political asset in the Middle East believed that women shouldn't have the right to vote.
If I were to meet Gertrude Bell in real life, I'm sure I would dislike her. She was proud, demanding, stubborn, hypocritical, and dismissive. But her life is a fascinating one, and she deserves much more credit than the world has given her.
March 4, 2019
This is a hard book to review because there are so many conflicting issues that the reader has to pick out the positives from the negatives to arrive at a rating.
The positives: Gertrude Bell was an amazing woman who explored the Middle East and went where no British man had ever gone, let alone a woman. She was brave bordering on foolhardiness but got away with it through sheer power of personality and knowledge of the language. Although she started her treks as an archeologist, she soon became involved in the desire for autonomy of the countries divided by the Versailles Treaty and the government mandates of England and France. She became, because of her overwhelming personality, a confidant of many of the highly placed sheiks and tribal leaders and her influence was quite powerful. The Arabs loved her, the British hated her (with some exceptions) but she tried to balance the negotiations in favor of the Arabs. And her success was so surprising that she became a mole for the British and worked closely with T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia).
Negatives: I couldn't stand her. She thought Arabian women were of the lowest caste and tried to school them in the ways of the British.....dress, conversation, and the all important ceremony of tea drinking. She was quoted as saying about King Faisal ".........he has the fatal defects of the Oriental {a term used at that time for residents of the Middle East] - lack of moral courage and lack of intellectual poise; the latter, I suppose a necessary corollary of ignorance". For an individual who purported to love the Arabic people, these actions seem to show something a little different. She always had to be right, was always in charge, and quite sharp tongued which were the things that caused her own people, the British, to dislike her intensely.
So, what is the answer to how to rate this book? It is a beautifully told tale and should not be rated on the fact that the main character was a bit of a bitch. A good read for those who are interested in the problems of the Middle East which still exist today.
The positives: Gertrude Bell was an amazing woman who explored the Middle East and went where no British man had ever gone, let alone a woman. She was brave bordering on foolhardiness but got away with it through sheer power of personality and knowledge of the language. Although she started her treks as an archeologist, she soon became involved in the desire for autonomy of the countries divided by the Versailles Treaty and the government mandates of England and France. She became, because of her overwhelming personality, a confidant of many of the highly placed sheiks and tribal leaders and her influence was quite powerful. The Arabs loved her, the British hated her (with some exceptions) but she tried to balance the negotiations in favor of the Arabs. And her success was so surprising that she became a mole for the British and worked closely with T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia).
Negatives: I couldn't stand her. She thought Arabian women were of the lowest caste and tried to school them in the ways of the British.....dress, conversation, and the all important ceremony of tea drinking. She was quoted as saying about King Faisal ".........he has the fatal defects of the Oriental {a term used at that time for residents of the Middle East] - lack of moral courage and lack of intellectual poise; the latter, I suppose a necessary corollary of ignorance". For an individual who purported to love the Arabic people, these actions seem to show something a little different. She always had to be right, was always in charge, and quite sharp tongued which were the things that caused her own people, the British, to dislike her intensely.
So, what is the answer to how to rate this book? It is a beautifully told tale and should not be rated on the fact that the main character was a bit of a bitch. A good read for those who are interested in the problems of the Middle East which still exist today.
January 26, 2026
Gertrude Bell (1868 – 1926) was a remarkable woman who started life as a sheltered Victorian child of a wealthy family but ended up as one of the most influential political figures in the Middle East. This biography covers Bell's early life, education at Oxford (rare for women of the time), archaeological expeditions, diplomatic work during World War I, and more. She was invited by Winston Churchill to the Cairo Conference, which established the boundaries of Middle Eastern countries. She interacted with T.E. Lawrence and played a major role in establishing monarchies in Jordan and Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). The narrative looks at her personal romantic relationships and determination to establish her place in a male-dominated world.
It is told chronologically, and quotes extensively from Bell's letters, diaries, and official correspondence. Wallach occasionally engages in romanticized descriptions of Bell's desert travels, but the overall style is journalistic. Gertrude Bell managed to gain access to Arab leaders in a culture where the women of the region would not have been allowed to speak. She faced many dangers during her travels. She often disagreed with the men in charge and was not shy about expressing her opinions. The book provides a detailed description of her life. She comes across as a woman of her time who felt she was doing the best she could for the people of the region she loved. I wish it had probed a bit deeper into the more problematic aspects of colonialism. It falls into the category of overlooked women of history, which I always enjoy.
It is told chronologically, and quotes extensively from Bell's letters, diaries, and official correspondence. Wallach occasionally engages in romanticized descriptions of Bell's desert travels, but the overall style is journalistic. Gertrude Bell managed to gain access to Arab leaders in a culture where the women of the region would not have been allowed to speak. She faced many dangers during her travels. She often disagreed with the men in charge and was not shy about expressing her opinions. The book provides a detailed description of her life. She comes across as a woman of her time who felt she was doing the best she could for the people of the region she loved. I wish it had probed a bit deeper into the more problematic aspects of colonialism. It falls into the category of overlooked women of history, which I always enjoy.
February 6, 2017
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. She was deprived of her mother early in life, but not deprived of much else, unless you feel that her lack of a husband was a major catastrophe. She was not, at her core, “rebellious,” but she was adventurous in the extreme. One of the most interesting elements of her “liberation” was her opposition to universal women’s suffrage.
She was not the only Westerner intent on immersing herself/himself in the world of the Arabs, but she was the only woman to successfully do so. Her initial adventures in exploring, mapping and excavating (with scholarly intentions) made it almost necessary for British intelligence to recruit her during World War I. Not only were her good relationships with Arab leaders important, but her intelligent insights proved critical to the successful outcome. One can argue that some of both the credit and blame for almost 100 years of subsequent disputes can be laid to her involvement in creating the borders of those Middle Eastern countries.
But before she dedicated herself to that task she prepared herself in many ways. She learned something of the many languages of this region. To her French, Italian and German she added Persian, Turkish, and last, but most difficult Arabic. She studied antiquities and archaeology. She tested herself physically in many ways but never more so than her times in the Alps. She climbed glaciers and peaks with two local expert guides. They often took risky assaults never before attempted. On one of those, the Finsteraarhorn, they “tumbled down a chimney (of ice)” in the midst of a storm and were marooned. “For sixteen hours, from four A.M. until eight the next evening they were on the arête; they carried nothing to drink but two tablespoons of brandy and a mouthful of wine, and the only food they had was what was left in their knapsacks…It snowed all day……the cold was bitter, the snow had turned to rain and their clothing was soaked. When they finally made it back to their base one of the men said, “had she not been full of courage and determination, we must have perished.” He went on to say that “no one (man or woman) equaled her in coolness, bravery and judgment.” These characteristics would serve her well in her many encounters with armed conflict, tribal chiefs and desert deprivations.
She entered Jerusalem for the first time just before the Twentieth Century began. It was the first of many trips. Wallach appears to have had carte blanche access to family diaries and to Bell’s correspondence. This may be why she can provide extraordinary context for the basic facts of Bell’s trips. However, I have no doubt that this is supplemented both by other research and her imagination. Let me provide a few illustrations. Her descriptions of London, Istanbul and other cities are quite detailed. So are her accounts of alpine crevasses and the myriad of desert environments.
“(W)ith only a jacket to cover her blouse and a long skirt, and a felt hat on her head she hurried along the street…to see…Sheikh Muhammad Bassam…he could help her…lay out a path in the shifting
Arabian sands.”
”Almost everything she wanted---food, clothing, even camels---was available in the covered bazaar. In a new Parisian suit, and with the amiable Fattuh at her side, she tramped through the dirty passagways, brush past pasha in gold-embroidered robes; sheikhs I gilt-edged cloaks; Turks covered in long silk coats, holding rosaries in their hands; Jews with long beards, their heads in turbans, their pants in Turkish style; Armenians and Greeks in colorfully embroidered tunics; old men proudly wearing green turbans that announced that they had made the pilgrimage to Mecca; Bedouin, just in from the desert, in their striped blue abbas and kefeeyahs; their women tattooed in indigo and veiled in dark blue cloth; and native boys hardly wearing anything at all. She stepped carefully away from the piles of dung left by camels and mules parading through the labyrinth of alleys…She paid a visit to her friend the red-bearded Bahai, who owned a tea shop, and he welcomed her as always with a cup of sweet Persian blend. “Your Excellency is known to us,” he had told her years before when she first stopped in. When she had reached for her money he said, “For you there is never anything to pay.””
Her long treks into the vast deserts of Arabia, Syria and Iraq were at great risk: Risk of starvation, risk of calamity, risk of robbery and risk of imprisonment. With a changing group of servants, camel drivers and guards, she was always at the mercy of the various tribes. But she must have been a provocative and attractive sight for each sheikh. She had no need of a translator. Smoking tobacco with one, taking bitter tiny cups of coffee with another, eating lamb and rice with her fingers with a third (and not refusing the delicacy of a sheep’s eyeball if offered), Bell paid attention to and gained friendship from the etiquette that is so fundamental to any relationship in this region.
Bell was aware of the many facets of her being in that part of the world. “She was content to be with them, sitting with their sheikhs, drinking their coffee around their fire, although she remembered what one of her rafiqs had said around just such a campfire. ‘In all the years when we come to this place we shall say: Here we came with her, here she camped. It will be a thing to talk of, your ghazai. We shall be asked for news of it, and we shall speak of it, and tell how you came.’ It made her anxious to think what they would say.‘ They will judge my whole race by me,’ she reckoned.”
The post-war debates about what was to become of the former Ottoman Empire territories went on for a long time. In essence, the Brits wanted the natural resources of the area between Turkey and Egypt (called mostly Mesopotamia) but they understood how costly that would be in terms of troops and support to the newly created governments. There were a number of choices. Britain could just divide up the territories with France. They could support a “native government” (their term), or they could get out completely and negotiate for oil and mineral rights.
Bell argued for indigenous governments with British support. “…a British decision to withdraw from Mesopotamia…might lead to disaster: ‘If we leave this country to go to the dogs it will mean we shall have to reconsider our who position in Asia. If Mesopotamia goes, Persia goes inevitably, and then India. And the place which we leave empty will be occupied by seven devils a good deal worse than any which existed before we came.’” Bell’s “domino theory” argued that not being engaged in Mesopotamia would lead inevitably to the end of the British Empire.
By 1920, Britain and France came to an agreement: “Arabia would remain as it was, an independent peninsula, though it would be guided by the British. Syria, including Lebanon, would be mandated to France; Mesopotamia (including Palestine) would be mandated to Britain; in both cases until such time as they ‘could stand on their own.’” They two powers would share in the exploration and development of petroleum. They must have thought they were paying attention to George Santayana’s admonition: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” But it certainly looks inevitable from the perspective of the 21st Century.
This book could be better, but not by making it generally tighter or more focused on the “critical years” of Middle East negotiation. Wallach is quite imaginative in some of the supposed dialogue between Bell and others from her British friends to her encounters in the desert and the Alps. We have no idea how much of the source of this was accurate or later created.
Bell is certainly of those classic self-made individuals who can be said to have “changed history.” That she may be unique in the 19th Century is more due to her gender than to anything in her character. If you tend to celebrate that, then you will probably enjoy this biography about the only woman who can be said to have made a major contribution to the Middle East we know today. This is certainly a very comprehensive view of Bell and one that provides a firm point for stepping off into a study of the Middle East, or the British movement for women’s rights, or the politics of this period.
Bell was the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, and granddaughter of the man who brought “modern” iron smelting to Newcastle. She was deprived of her mother early in life, but not deprived of much else, unless you feel that her lack of a husband was a major catastrophe. She was not, at her core, “rebellious,” but she was adventurous in the extreme. One of the most interesting elements of her “liberation” was her opposition to universal women’s suffrage.
She was not the only Westerner intent on immersing herself/himself in the world of the Arabs, but she was the only woman to successfully do so. Her initial adventures in exploring, mapping and excavating (with scholarly intentions) made it almost necessary for British intelligence to recruit her during World War I. Not only were her good relationships with Arab leaders important, but her intelligent insights proved critical to the successful outcome. One can argue that some of both the credit and blame for almost 100 years of subsequent disputes can be laid to her involvement in creating the borders of those Middle Eastern countries.
But before she dedicated herself to that task she prepared herself in many ways. She learned something of the many languages of this region. To her French, Italian and German she added Persian, Turkish, and last, but most difficult Arabic. She studied antiquities and archaeology. She tested herself physically in many ways but never more so than her times in the Alps. She climbed glaciers and peaks with two local expert guides. They often took risky assaults never before attempted. On one of those, the Finsteraarhorn, they “tumbled down a chimney (of ice)” in the midst of a storm and were marooned. “For sixteen hours, from four A.M. until eight the next evening they were on the arête; they carried nothing to drink but two tablespoons of brandy and a mouthful of wine, and the only food they had was what was left in their knapsacks…It snowed all day……the cold was bitter, the snow had turned to rain and their clothing was soaked. When they finally made it back to their base one of the men said, “had she not been full of courage and determination, we must have perished.” He went on to say that “no one (man or woman) equaled her in coolness, bravery and judgment.” These characteristics would serve her well in her many encounters with armed conflict, tribal chiefs and desert deprivations.
She entered Jerusalem for the first time just before the Twentieth Century began. It was the first of many trips. Wallach appears to have had carte blanche access to family diaries and to Bell’s correspondence. This may be why she can provide extraordinary context for the basic facts of Bell’s trips. However, I have no doubt that this is supplemented both by other research and her imagination. Let me provide a few illustrations. Her descriptions of London, Istanbul and other cities are quite detailed. So are her accounts of alpine crevasses and the myriad of desert environments.
“(W)ith only a jacket to cover her blouse and a long skirt, and a felt hat on her head she hurried along the street…to see…Sheikh Muhammad Bassam…he could help her…lay out a path in the shifting
Arabian sands.”
”Almost everything she wanted---food, clothing, even camels---was available in the covered bazaar. In a new Parisian suit, and with the amiable Fattuh at her side, she tramped through the dirty passagways, brush past pasha in gold-embroidered robes; sheikhs I gilt-edged cloaks; Turks covered in long silk coats, holding rosaries in their hands; Jews with long beards, their heads in turbans, their pants in Turkish style; Armenians and Greeks in colorfully embroidered tunics; old men proudly wearing green turbans that announced that they had made the pilgrimage to Mecca; Bedouin, just in from the desert, in their striped blue abbas and kefeeyahs; their women tattooed in indigo and veiled in dark blue cloth; and native boys hardly wearing anything at all. She stepped carefully away from the piles of dung left by camels and mules parading through the labyrinth of alleys…She paid a visit to her friend the red-bearded Bahai, who owned a tea shop, and he welcomed her as always with a cup of sweet Persian blend. “Your Excellency is known to us,” he had told her years before when she first stopped in. When she had reached for her money he said, “For you there is never anything to pay.””
Her long treks into the vast deserts of Arabia, Syria and Iraq were at great risk: Risk of starvation, risk of calamity, risk of robbery and risk of imprisonment. With a changing group of servants, camel drivers and guards, she was always at the mercy of the various tribes. But she must have been a provocative and attractive sight for each sheikh. She had no need of a translator. Smoking tobacco with one, taking bitter tiny cups of coffee with another, eating lamb and rice with her fingers with a third (and not refusing the delicacy of a sheep’s eyeball if offered), Bell paid attention to and gained friendship from the etiquette that is so fundamental to any relationship in this region.
Bell was aware of the many facets of her being in that part of the world. “She was content to be with them, sitting with their sheikhs, drinking their coffee around their fire, although she remembered what one of her rafiqs had said around just such a campfire. ‘In all the years when we come to this place we shall say: Here we came with her, here she camped. It will be a thing to talk of, your ghazai. We shall be asked for news of it, and we shall speak of it, and tell how you came.’ It made her anxious to think what they would say.‘ They will judge my whole race by me,’ she reckoned.”
The post-war debates about what was to become of the former Ottoman Empire territories went on for a long time. In essence, the Brits wanted the natural resources of the area between Turkey and Egypt (called mostly Mesopotamia) but they understood how costly that would be in terms of troops and support to the newly created governments. There were a number of choices. Britain could just divide up the territories with France. They could support a “native government” (their term), or they could get out completely and negotiate for oil and mineral rights.
Bell argued for indigenous governments with British support. “…a British decision to withdraw from Mesopotamia…might lead to disaster: ‘If we leave this country to go to the dogs it will mean we shall have to reconsider our who position in Asia. If Mesopotamia goes, Persia goes inevitably, and then India. And the place which we leave empty will be occupied by seven devils a good deal worse than any which existed before we came.’” Bell’s “domino theory” argued that not being engaged in Mesopotamia would lead inevitably to the end of the British Empire.
By 1920, Britain and France came to an agreement: “Arabia would remain as it was, an independent peninsula, though it would be guided by the British. Syria, including Lebanon, would be mandated to France; Mesopotamia (including Palestine) would be mandated to Britain; in both cases until such time as they ‘could stand on their own.’” They two powers would share in the exploration and development of petroleum. They must have thought they were paying attention to George Santayana’s admonition: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” But it certainly looks inevitable from the perspective of the 21st Century.
This book could be better, but not by making it generally tighter or more focused on the “critical years” of Middle East negotiation. Wallach is quite imaginative in some of the supposed dialogue between Bell and others from her British friends to her encounters in the desert and the Alps. We have no idea how much of the source of this was accurate or later created.
Bell is certainly of those classic self-made individuals who can be said to have “changed history.” That she may be unique in the 19th Century is more due to her gender than to anything in her character. If you tend to celebrate that, then you will probably enjoy this biography about the only woman who can be said to have made a major contribution to the Middle East we know today. This is certainly a very comprehensive view of Bell and one that provides a firm point for stepping off into a study of the Middle East, or the British movement for women’s rights, or the politics of this period.
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 British officials, Arab sheiks and explorers, enjoyed (or endured) two tragic romances before World War I elevated her to international fame. Bell played an instrumental role in the Cairo Conference of 1922, which fixed the borders of the postwar Middle East, and established the modern state of Iraq, serving as a close adviser to King Faisal before her untimely death (probably suicide) in 1926. Bell is an intriguing figure and Wallach's book can't help being interesting as it explores her travels, ambition, ferocious intellect and internal contradictions (this remarkably accomplished woman opposed the suffrage movement; she reviled Islam while holding a love for Arab culture). But Wallach seems a less-than-ideal biographer; normally a novelist, this nonfiction book employs a florid writing style that revels in superfluous details and stilted prose flourishes at the expense of depth or insight. Thus Desert Queen often feels like a chore to read, offering some insights into its subject but failing to illuminate the context in which she operated, or the world she helped create. Georgina Howell's similarly titled Queen of the Desert is a better work, although flawed its own right; Desert Queen is, at most, a serviceable introduction.
June 21, 2023
I decided to finish reading about Gertrude Bell... I have several others somewhere on the cloud.
March 25, 2008
It's popular these days to blame Gertrude Bell for arbitrarily carving up the tribal Middle East into countries. Read this book. She'd be spinning in her grave if she could see what Iraq has come to. She fought hard for Arabs of the Iraq region to govern themselves rather than become servants of the British Empire (the British wanted that oil too). This book is very detailed - a fascinating overview of the Middle East after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
January 24, 2008
My feelings about this book are a bit muddled for several reasons:
1. I eat up memoirs and historical accounts, but the writing here is a bit contrived at times, thick (i.e. dull), and perhaps a bit biased. I enjoy a challenging read, but it wasn't always challenging for the right reasons.
2. I was really looking forward to reading about this fiercely independent, intelligent, and visionary woman who made her own place in the world. While all of this is true and I respect it, I deeply question her (Britain's) motives for "helping" the Iraqi people and can't exactly relate to her as I thought I would because she sometimes comes off as too rich, spoiled, or severely egotistical.
3. I loved learning more about the tribes that roamed Persia and Mesopotamia and the formation of Iraq. You can tell the author did some really great research (just as Bell did), even though much of the issues and facts are written from a flawed early 19th Century perspective. Of course, this is the world of Gertrude Bell herself..i just thought the reader would benefit from somehow incorporating a fresher contemporary perspective that is less one-sided.
4. The author does cover some of Gertrude Bell's failings/weaknesses. I understand that one might not want to spend the time writing a biography of someone unless they really looked up to them, but I felt that these failings/weaknesses could have been shown with more honesty.
5. Most of my complaints are balanced by the fact that the author really has outdone herself with her program "Seeds of Peace" that promotes understanding and growth among the youth of fueding groups in the middle east. It's some outstanding stuff and shows the author's passions and concerns for what they truely are.
All in all, I'm glad I read this. I learned a lot and would certainly recommend it to others interested in the history of the area, but would urge that the reader take it "with a bit of salt." If ever get the nerve up again, I'd consider reading some of the other biographies that exist on Bell for comparison and definitely some histories on the area from an arab perspective.
One other thing I might note: As I was finishing this book in an airport over Christmas, I was able to discuss it with a very intelligent Iraqi woman sitting in back of me. She had heard me explaining the book to the person with me and even though I normally do not like engaging in airport conversation with strangers, I'm so glad i did because i learned a lot from her about what the war is like on the ground in Iraq and her first-hand understanding of her people and the middle east. I never imagined what it would be like to have to evacuate my own home because there was a ticking bomb in the back yard and I hope she will never have to again...whoever you are, thank you for sharing your life with me. It is a wonderful and hopeful thing to be able to meet the individual faces behind an ugly war and to be able to share a mutual understanding.
1. I eat up memoirs and historical accounts, but the writing here is a bit contrived at times, thick (i.e. dull), and perhaps a bit biased. I enjoy a challenging read, but it wasn't always challenging for the right reasons.
2. I was really looking forward to reading about this fiercely independent, intelligent, and visionary woman who made her own place in the world. While all of this is true and I respect it, I deeply question her (Britain's) motives for "helping" the Iraqi people and can't exactly relate to her as I thought I would because she sometimes comes off as too rich, spoiled, or severely egotistical.
3. I loved learning more about the tribes that roamed Persia and Mesopotamia and the formation of Iraq. You can tell the author did some really great research (just as Bell did), even though much of the issues and facts are written from a flawed early 19th Century perspective. Of course, this is the world of Gertrude Bell herself..i just thought the reader would benefit from somehow incorporating a fresher contemporary perspective that is less one-sided.
4. The author does cover some of Gertrude Bell's failings/weaknesses. I understand that one might not want to spend the time writing a biography of someone unless they really looked up to them, but I felt that these failings/weaknesses could have been shown with more honesty.
5. Most of my complaints are balanced by the fact that the author really has outdone herself with her program "Seeds of Peace" that promotes understanding and growth among the youth of fueding groups in the middle east. It's some outstanding stuff and shows the author's passions and concerns for what they truely are.
All in all, I'm glad I read this. I learned a lot and would certainly recommend it to others interested in the history of the area, but would urge that the reader take it "with a bit of salt." If ever get the nerve up again, I'd consider reading some of the other biographies that exist on Bell for comparison and definitely some histories on the area from an arab perspective.
One other thing I might note: As I was finishing this book in an airport over Christmas, I was able to discuss it with a very intelligent Iraqi woman sitting in back of me. She had heard me explaining the book to the person with me and even though I normally do not like engaging in airport conversation with strangers, I'm so glad i did because i learned a lot from her about what the war is like on the ground in Iraq and her first-hand understanding of her people and the middle east. I never imagined what it would be like to have to evacuate my own home because there was a ticking bomb in the back yard and I hope she will never have to again...whoever you are, thank you for sharing your life with me. It is a wonderful and hopeful thing to be able to meet the individual faces behind an ugly war and to be able to share a mutual understanding.
April 9, 2024
5 Stars for Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Advisor to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia (audiobook) Janet Wallach read by Jean Gilpin.
This is the remarkable story of the woman who was a crucial adviser to the British on setting up the boarders and government of Iraq. She was one of the few people who was trusted by both sides as the Middle East was being divided up after World War I.
This is the remarkable story of the woman who was a crucial adviser to the British on setting up the boarders and government of Iraq. She was one of the few people who was trusted by both sides as the Middle East was being divided up after World War I.
August 28, 2023
A well researched and well written biography of Gertrude Bell: her times, her travels, her trials and her enormous influence on the shaping of British foreign policy in the Middle East during and after WW I. In short, this is an interesting and fascinating read about a larger than life personality who, through her contacts with local leaders and politicians, left an indelible mark on the early 20th century history of the Middle East.
December 21, 2025
Gertrude Bell was a very interesting, very polarizing historical figure. Her bravery and boldness put her in the history books, but her opposition of women's suffrage will never cease to confuse me.
I read this as part of a silly reading challenge that ended up being a ton of fun.
Click here to hear more of my thoughts on this book over on my Booktube channel, abookolive.
I read this as part of a silly reading challenge that ended up being a ton of fun.
Click here to hear more of my thoughts on this book over on my Booktube channel, abookolive.
August 10, 2007
i read this book in high school and really enjoyed it. About 2 years later, I met the author at a graduation ceremony and got to talk to her/'dorkily' (not a word, i know) asked her to sign the book for me, which she did. Honestly, even more amazing than this book is the program the author started in Maine, called, "Seeds of Peace" a summer camp for Israeli and Palestinian high school students to have fun and get to know each other.
"Ms. Wallach is currently president of Seeds of Peace, a conflict resolution program which brings together teenagers from the Middle East; India, Pakistan and Afghanistan; the Balkans; and Greece, Turkey and divided Cyprus. The organization has a year-round program that includes a summer camp in Maine, a Center for Coexistence in Jerusalem, annual conferences and an educational arm that helps Seeds alumni attend college in the U.S. More than 2,500 participants have participated in a three-week session at the camp in Maine and then returned to their regions for further workshops, meetings and conflict resolution programs."
"Ms. Wallach is currently president of Seeds of Peace, a conflict resolution program which brings together teenagers from the Middle East; India, Pakistan and Afghanistan; the Balkans; and Greece, Turkey and divided Cyprus. The organization has a year-round program that includes a summer camp in Maine, a Center for Coexistence in Jerusalem, annual conferences and an educational arm that helps Seeds alumni attend college in the U.S. More than 2,500 participants have participated in a three-week session at the camp in Maine and then returned to their regions for further workshops, meetings and conflict resolution programs."
August 21, 2012
Overall, Desert Queen was a good detailing of a life that has often been overlooked. I think the earlier portion would have benefited more from hearing more of Gertrude's own voice via her letters. I quickly grew bored of hearing her meetings with sheikhs and other prominent figures consisting of a hot cup of Turkish coffee and some meat with rice. The constant reminders of who Fattuh was also made me a little irritated-- got it, he's her loyal Armenian servant; this in conjunction with the lack of explaining in depth who other figures were who would figure in the birth of Iraq was kind of off-putting.
Even though Wallach has a romanticized view of Bell throughout much of the biography, I came away not liking the Khatun at all. She was very self-involved and self-aggrandizing; even when her father tells her of the family's declining fortune, she still writes to her step-mother for three pairs of mules from a French cobbler and rejoices that she only went 560 pounds over her budget this year-- she even holds up this fact for Hugh (her father) to approve. She was very much invested in the idea of being a "Person" and anyone who didn't agree with her was branded foolish or unenlightened. Bell was the brains behind the birth of the first Arab nation- Iraq- and the person we can blame our current troubles on. By insisting the boundaries envelop Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis and appointing (forcing upon the people, more like) a foreigner (Hejazi, not Iraqi), Bell constructed the perfect little Mandate and quickly became irrelevant when it started to fall apart. The reason I don't feel much sympathy for Bell doesn't come from Wallach's portrayal of her, but from the fact that she's not someone I could sympathize with. Ever.
Even though Wallach has a romanticized view of Bell throughout much of the biography, I came away not liking the Khatun at all. She was very self-involved and self-aggrandizing; even when her father tells her of the family's declining fortune, she still writes to her step-mother for three pairs of mules from a French cobbler and rejoices that she only went 560 pounds over her budget this year-- she even holds up this fact for Hugh (her father) to approve. She was very much invested in the idea of being a "Person" and anyone who didn't agree with her was branded foolish or unenlightened. Bell was the brains behind the birth of the first Arab nation- Iraq- and the person we can blame our current troubles on. By insisting the boundaries envelop Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis and appointing (forcing upon the people, more like) a foreigner (Hejazi, not Iraqi), Bell constructed the perfect little Mandate and quickly became irrelevant when it started to fall apart. The reason I don't feel much sympathy for Bell doesn't come from Wallach's portrayal of her, but from the fact that she's not someone I could sympathize with. Ever.
July 4, 2025
I started sobbing as I read the final pages describing Gertrude Bell's death and funeral. After spending most of the last week absorbed in this superb biography of her life and work in Mesopotamia (now Iraq), her death was a personal loss that cuts deep.
To him and to many others, the Khatun [the 'Lady'] was the embodiment of the British Empire, the personification of British power. She overcame the obstacles and made her mark on history, and in the end, she was what she had wanted most to be: Miss Gertrude Bell was a Person.
An aristocratic Englishwoman, courageous, curious, confident, wearing lace and silk and armed with a fur stole, large flower-bedecked hat, and a parasol, Gertrude Bell as a young woman in her 20s launched herself on a solo trip by camel across the deserts of the Middle East, learning the Arab world as no European, certainly no Brit, had ever done to that time. One of the most brilliant minds of the 20th Century, the relationships she developed on these treks through Mesopotamia prior to WWI ultimately led to her becoming a spy, a diplomat, a cartographer, and ultimately the lynchpin for the creation of the modern Middle East. In fact, the boundaries of Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Syria, etc. were devised by Gertrude Bell. Formidable but utterly feminine, she saw herself as intellectually masculine, and certainly not a feminist. Although I would argue that whether she saw herself in that light or not, she was without a doubt a feminist, in spite of her anti-suffrage stance! Gertrude was also a workaholic and often intensely lonely and isolated; her greatest regret was never having married and borne children. Gertrude mostly looked at other women with disdain, most of her female contacts being the wives of the political appointees to Baghdad or of the Arab sheikhs. Yet, for all her impatience at these women's shallowness and lack of spirit, she did much to improve the lot of Arabian women with education, health care and western ideas. Gertrude surrounded herself with men whom she considered her intellectual equals.
In fact, these contradictions make her incredibly human and thus someone who you can understand, champion, deplore; in short, invest several days reading about. It doesn't hurt that Wallach's research involved an incredible wealth of primary research materials, including interviews with a few men who actually knew Gertrude (this was originally published in 1996, making the period of her research prior to the Iraq War and a time when some who knew her would still be alive if quite old). And aside from all she accomplished politically in Mesopotamia, there is so much more: her love of archeology and history, particularly of Mesopotamia, ultimately led to her establishment of the Baghdad Museum, renowned for its antiquities, that was destroyed just a dozen years or so ago during the Iraq War. She was an avid mountaineer, with a peak in the Alps named for her as she was one of the first to scale it. An avid flower gardener, she brought many species of flowers, like daffodils to Baghdad, being the first to plant them there. And as her story is told, her travels go from ship and camel to horseback, car and airplane. Extraordinary.
But it isn't just the story of Gertrude herself that so captivated me. Wallach does a superb job of painting the historical and political scene in which Gertrude lived and worked, particularly once she committed herself to Mesopotamia. Wallach succeeds in making accessible the complex tribal relationships, the exotic names, and shifting allegiances. This is a superb primer of how the modern Middle East began.
ATY#44
To him and to many others, the Khatun [the 'Lady'] was the embodiment of the British Empire, the personification of British power. She overcame the obstacles and made her mark on history, and in the end, she was what she had wanted most to be: Miss Gertrude Bell was a Person.
An aristocratic Englishwoman, courageous, curious, confident, wearing lace and silk and armed with a fur stole, large flower-bedecked hat, and a parasol, Gertrude Bell as a young woman in her 20s launched herself on a solo trip by camel across the deserts of the Middle East, learning the Arab world as no European, certainly no Brit, had ever done to that time. One of the most brilliant minds of the 20th Century, the relationships she developed on these treks through Mesopotamia prior to WWI ultimately led to her becoming a spy, a diplomat, a cartographer, and ultimately the lynchpin for the creation of the modern Middle East. In fact, the boundaries of Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Syria, etc. were devised by Gertrude Bell. Formidable but utterly feminine, she saw herself as intellectually masculine, and certainly not a feminist. Although I would argue that whether she saw herself in that light or not, she was without a doubt a feminist, in spite of her anti-suffrage stance! Gertrude was also a workaholic and often intensely lonely and isolated; her greatest regret was never having married and borne children. Gertrude mostly looked at other women with disdain, most of her female contacts being the wives of the political appointees to Baghdad or of the Arab sheikhs. Yet, for all her impatience at these women's shallowness and lack of spirit, she did much to improve the lot of Arabian women with education, health care and western ideas. Gertrude surrounded herself with men whom she considered her intellectual equals.
In fact, these contradictions make her incredibly human and thus someone who you can understand, champion, deplore; in short, invest several days reading about. It doesn't hurt that Wallach's research involved an incredible wealth of primary research materials, including interviews with a few men who actually knew Gertrude (this was originally published in 1996, making the period of her research prior to the Iraq War and a time when some who knew her would still be alive if quite old). And aside from all she accomplished politically in Mesopotamia, there is so much more: her love of archeology and history, particularly of Mesopotamia, ultimately led to her establishment of the Baghdad Museum, renowned for its antiquities, that was destroyed just a dozen years or so ago during the Iraq War. She was an avid mountaineer, with a peak in the Alps named for her as she was one of the first to scale it. An avid flower gardener, she brought many species of flowers, like daffodils to Baghdad, being the first to plant them there. And as her story is told, her travels go from ship and camel to horseback, car and airplane. Extraordinary.
But it isn't just the story of Gertrude herself that so captivated me. Wallach does a superb job of painting the historical and political scene in which Gertrude lived and worked, particularly once she committed herself to Mesopotamia. Wallach succeeds in making accessible the complex tribal relationships, the exotic names, and shifting allegiances. This is a superb primer of how the modern Middle East began.
ATY#44
January 19, 2022
A great book about a great women. A must read!
I first read about Gertrude Bell in a book about Lawrence of Arabia which I read 2 years ago. I bought this book right after, but then put it aside for a long time. This year I finally got around to reading it, and I'm happy I did. It never got boring. Even if the writing had been bad (which it wasn't) the book would have been great. And that is mainly because the life of Gertrude Bell is just so exciting and interesting, especially if you are interested in the modern Middle east! Good or bad, she had a big part to play in the creation of the modern middle east, especially of Iraq. Not only was she highly respected by the British officials, but also the Arab men showed her lots of love and respect.
I first read about Gertrude Bell in a book about Lawrence of Arabia which I read 2 years ago. I bought this book right after, but then put it aside for a long time. This year I finally got around to reading it, and I'm happy I did. It never got boring. Even if the writing had been bad (which it wasn't) the book would have been great. And that is mainly because the life of Gertrude Bell is just so exciting and interesting, especially if you are interested in the modern Middle east! Good or bad, she had a big part to play in the creation of the modern middle east, especially of Iraq. Not only was she highly respected by the British officials, but also the Arab men showed her lots of love and respect.
January 18, 2023
Gertrude Bell did fascinating things during a fascinating time in history but I'm afraid that I didn't find her much of a fascinating person. Perhaps this is because most of the extracts presented by Wallach are from letters home to her parents and siblings. I would have loved a diary. What I did enjoy from the book is a concentrated look at the major British players involved in carving up the post-Ottoman Middle East into modern nation states and the colonial attitudes behind it. I do think that I will read The Desert and The Sown next, to hear more directly from her the insights and observation she made during her early travels.
June 17, 2011
A random find at the local Goodwill, I had been meaning to read a biography when I saw this book. I wasn't quite sure how interested I would be in Gertrude Bell, but she ended up speaking me to me very clearly.
There are a lot of confusing things about Gertrude. While she rejected the common ideal of what the Victorian woman was supposed to be, at the same time she embraced her femininity and used it to her advantage throughout her political career. She also rallied against the suffrage movement, although later in life she had more complaints about the restrictions on her gender. She seemed to have a level head, but then at times would be vulnerable to her fits of romance and fancy. Although she was too naive and trusting at times, her womanly intuition was mostly spot on. She adopted the typical role of the Victorian woman, and her power was held mostly behind the scenes, out of limelight. Her politics were built on the relationships she had, which is a good message in any career choice. Build genuine friendships with as many people as possible because you never know.
Gertrude was amazing because her politics were always personal. She put so much of herself into the work she was doing, it was hard to separate her politics from her personality. To me, this can be ideal, but at the same time it can unravel a human being, as we see with Gertrude. As her political prominence begins to fade, her purpose in life became less and less clear for her. She had nothing outside of Iraq.
I love the imperfection in her. This book does well to portray her in the best light, but you can't help but notice the pervasiveness of her flaws. Stubborn, yet sometimes indecisive, easily depressed and never quite emotionally in touch with the world. Separate, snobbish, and often petty, Gertrude represented many negative stereotypes of a Victorian woman. However, the differences are much more noticeable.
I relate to Gertrude's quest to become a "Person", someone who matters. It's unfortunate because I don't think that feeling ever lasted for her. But if anyone was ever a Person in the Middle East, it was her.
In a time in my life where possible majors are taking up most of my thoughts, and days have been spent agonizing over every last class and career detail of each, this biography has inspired me to pursue an education in history and foreign language. The world out there is huge, and we actually can make a difference. It takes a certain ambition and strength of character, something Gertrude possessed like none other. It has inspired me to make my own mark in history and politics as an educated, passionate woman.
The writing style was literary, yet easy to follow. It gave personality and romance to the endless deserts and the seemingly hostile Middle East. This book brought my heart there and has inspired me to go. So much of our past is there, and much of our future as well. I have a clearer understanding of where Gertrude's passion for the place came from, and how its differences from the West is what makes it so compelling. Unfortunately, this book did little to restore my hope in the Middle East, as it is obvious to me that their struggles have existed for quite some time, and will for quite some time after. From an outsider's perspective, it seems like a petty feud, but for Iraqis, it is a matter of the Prophet and of honor and of history. This is not something that can be easily resolved. Gertrude's work was well-done, but it feels almost as if it were in vain. Everyone blames imperialism for Iraq's downfall, but the violently tribal Arabia was already destined for misfortune. It's funny how the most obvious theme in the history of politics is that, on a micro level, people change, but looking at the bigger picture, they never really did.
There are a lot of confusing things about Gertrude. While she rejected the common ideal of what the Victorian woman was supposed to be, at the same time she embraced her femininity and used it to her advantage throughout her political career. She also rallied against the suffrage movement, although later in life she had more complaints about the restrictions on her gender. She seemed to have a level head, but then at times would be vulnerable to her fits of romance and fancy. Although she was too naive and trusting at times, her womanly intuition was mostly spot on. She adopted the typical role of the Victorian woman, and her power was held mostly behind the scenes, out of limelight. Her politics were built on the relationships she had, which is a good message in any career choice. Build genuine friendships with as many people as possible because you never know.
Gertrude was amazing because her politics were always personal. She put so much of herself into the work she was doing, it was hard to separate her politics from her personality. To me, this can be ideal, but at the same time it can unravel a human being, as we see with Gertrude. As her political prominence begins to fade, her purpose in life became less and less clear for her. She had nothing outside of Iraq.
I love the imperfection in her. This book does well to portray her in the best light, but you can't help but notice the pervasiveness of her flaws. Stubborn, yet sometimes indecisive, easily depressed and never quite emotionally in touch with the world. Separate, snobbish, and often petty, Gertrude represented many negative stereotypes of a Victorian woman. However, the differences are much more noticeable.
I relate to Gertrude's quest to become a "Person", someone who matters. It's unfortunate because I don't think that feeling ever lasted for her. But if anyone was ever a Person in the Middle East, it was her.
In a time in my life where possible majors are taking up most of my thoughts, and days have been spent agonizing over every last class and career detail of each, this biography has inspired me to pursue an education in history and foreign language. The world out there is huge, and we actually can make a difference. It takes a certain ambition and strength of character, something Gertrude possessed like none other. It has inspired me to make my own mark in history and politics as an educated, passionate woman.
The writing style was literary, yet easy to follow. It gave personality and romance to the endless deserts and the seemingly hostile Middle East. This book brought my heart there and has inspired me to go. So much of our past is there, and much of our future as well. I have a clearer understanding of where Gertrude's passion for the place came from, and how its differences from the West is what makes it so compelling. Unfortunately, this book did little to restore my hope in the Middle East, as it is obvious to me that their struggles have existed for quite some time, and will for quite some time after. From an outsider's perspective, it seems like a petty feud, but for Iraqis, it is a matter of the Prophet and of honor and of history. This is not something that can be easily resolved. Gertrude's work was well-done, but it feels almost as if it were in vain. Everyone blames imperialism for Iraq's downfall, but the violently tribal Arabia was already destined for misfortune. It's funny how the most obvious theme in the history of politics is that, on a micro level, people change, but looking at the bigger picture, they never really did.
July 29, 2007
An interesting but not compelling read about a fascinating woman. Though i was enthralled with the story of Victorian Gertrude Bell's life and how she gained acceptance and reverence from Middle Eastern patriarchs (Bedouin, Persian and Arab), I couldn't help but think the author slid over important things, hinted at key moments (e.g. the anecdote that Gertrude had seen hundreds of wounded soldiers during WWI but the author had never mentioned an incident before, when, where, under what circumstances?) or Bell's apparent live-in relationship with Ken Cornwallis. She spent a great deal of time discussing Bell's romance with another man, married, and how they never consummated their relationship because of Bell's feelings about physical infidelity but then Bell all but appears to live with Cornwallis in Baghdad and the author doesn't even attempt to discuss the issue of physical intimacy?
These are slight incidents in this biography but they hint to me of the author's general inability to delve too deeply into the context (politics and personalities) of the era--Also, the discussions of Bell's last months seem rushed and there is limited inclusion of Bell's letters and diaries (which are available at Newcastle College in England) which might help explain her Black Depression which ended in suicide at the age of 58. Did the ending of the relationship with Cornwallis contribute to the changing English presence in Baghdad and Bell's declining importance/status? Or was it merely a work related depression?
I don't really feel i 'know' Bell after readings this, I know of her existence and facts but ultimately not what drove her.
I recommend it as a basic read about Bell but perhaps not a complete explanation of her abilities, intellect and life.
These are slight incidents in this biography but they hint to me of the author's general inability to delve too deeply into the context (politics and personalities) of the era--Also, the discussions of Bell's last months seem rushed and there is limited inclusion of Bell's letters and diaries (which are available at Newcastle College in England) which might help explain her Black Depression which ended in suicide at the age of 58. Did the ending of the relationship with Cornwallis contribute to the changing English presence in Baghdad and Bell's declining importance/status? Or was it merely a work related depression?
I don't really feel i 'know' Bell after readings this, I know of her existence and facts but ultimately not what drove her.
I recommend it as a basic read about Bell but perhaps not a complete explanation of her abilities, intellect and life.
July 17, 2007
I got about two-thirds of the way through this book and stopped reading it. She traveled through Persia and Arabia in comparative "style" with a string of servants, on Daddy's dime. I know that's the way it had to happen back then, but I felt that she was just a dabbler, looking for ways to pass the time.
June 20, 2025
Just superb.
T.E. Lawrence is a household name. A book. A film. Not sure if there is a play. If film makers believe they can make a few bucks out of Lawrence's life, then surely they must see the dollar signs in a film about Ms. Bell.
T.E. Lawrence is a household name. A book. A film. Not sure if there is a play. If film makers believe they can make a few bucks out of Lawrence's life, then surely they must see the dollar signs in a film about Ms. Bell.
December 5, 2012
Today's news, the utter destruction of the ancient city of Aleppo and much of the chaos in the Middle East might be credited to the handy work of Gertrude Bell, the Desert Queen of the title, who drew the untenable boundaries that form modern Iraq.
The story of this unlikely wielder of power in the Middle East is both fascinating and commonplace. A woman bereaved at the death of her suitor, whom she'd rejected, goes traveling to relieve her spirits. Gertrude Bell was not the only early 20th century woman to excursion on her own through what was still the Ottoman Empire, but through her wealthy, industrialist family she had political connections.
A woman of remarkable self assertiveness, vanity and, apparently, a vivacity of mind appealing to Arab men as a sort of non-female female, she made friends with sheiks wherever she went -- and developed a nearly unique knowledge, among the English, of the personalities and geography of Mesopotamia. Thus she was given an official position with the British government when, after WWI, it found itself in possession of territories of the defeated and collapsed Ottoman Empire.
Bell, a romantic eager to supply a kingdom for her friend Feisal (who had been expelled by the French from the kingdom he was promised in the equally newly designed Syria) was not solely to blame for the borders of Iraq. Oil already was an issue.
Winston Churchill, as head of the British navy, had converted the fleet from using coal for fuel -- which Britain itself could supply -- to faster-propelling petroleum. But Britain had no petroleum, and Mosul did. Hence the newly designed country of Iraq must encompass Mosul and its surrounding land of Kurdistan -- recognizing of course that this new land was not really to be an independent monarchy under Feisal, but should be under British mandate.
Feisal was a foreigner, from Mecca, not Iraqui Mesopotamia, and had only one, rather feeble, young son. But never mind. everybody liked him. If Feisal looked sad it was for good reason, while he managed to survive in this pasted together kingdom where not only the Kurds wanted out but the Sunnis and Shiites were, as ever, at each others throats, Feisal's son and grandson quickly were assassinated.
Few women in all of history have ever had so much power -- and made such a mess. Wallach is fond of her subject but the vanity, audacity and incompetence show through in this meticulous exploration of how a sad, romantic young woman became the pivotal authority in shaping the modern Middle East. Obscure by her own wish, Bell is virtually unknown compared to her ally T.E. Lawrence, but her ultimate effect was far greater.
Wallach is a superb biographer. Her magnificent study of Chanel is staggering in its abundance of photographic material as well as information. Wallach's choices of subject aren't frivolous: Chanel in some ways changed the world as significantly as did Bell, though with a more positive result -- by being a major influence in releasing women from inhibiting corsets and long skirts that limited their freedom of movement. How much might the comfortable clothes of the 20th and 21st century have contributed to the equality of women in the workplace? I highly recommend the books of Janet Wallach.
The story of this unlikely wielder of power in the Middle East is both fascinating and commonplace. A woman bereaved at the death of her suitor, whom she'd rejected, goes traveling to relieve her spirits. Gertrude Bell was not the only early 20th century woman to excursion on her own through what was still the Ottoman Empire, but through her wealthy, industrialist family she had political connections.
A woman of remarkable self assertiveness, vanity and, apparently, a vivacity of mind appealing to Arab men as a sort of non-female female, she made friends with sheiks wherever she went -- and developed a nearly unique knowledge, among the English, of the personalities and geography of Mesopotamia. Thus she was given an official position with the British government when, after WWI, it found itself in possession of territories of the defeated and collapsed Ottoman Empire.
Bell, a romantic eager to supply a kingdom for her friend Feisal (who had been expelled by the French from the kingdom he was promised in the equally newly designed Syria) was not solely to blame for the borders of Iraq. Oil already was an issue.
Winston Churchill, as head of the British navy, had converted the fleet from using coal for fuel -- which Britain itself could supply -- to faster-propelling petroleum. But Britain had no petroleum, and Mosul did. Hence the newly designed country of Iraq must encompass Mosul and its surrounding land of Kurdistan -- recognizing of course that this new land was not really to be an independent monarchy under Feisal, but should be under British mandate.
Feisal was a foreigner, from Mecca, not Iraqui Mesopotamia, and had only one, rather feeble, young son. But never mind. everybody liked him. If Feisal looked sad it was for good reason, while he managed to survive in this pasted together kingdom where not only the Kurds wanted out but the Sunnis and Shiites were, as ever, at each others throats, Feisal's son and grandson quickly were assassinated.
Few women in all of history have ever had so much power -- and made such a mess. Wallach is fond of her subject but the vanity, audacity and incompetence show through in this meticulous exploration of how a sad, romantic young woman became the pivotal authority in shaping the modern Middle East. Obscure by her own wish, Bell is virtually unknown compared to her ally T.E. Lawrence, but her ultimate effect was far greater.
Wallach is a superb biographer. Her magnificent study of Chanel is staggering in its abundance of photographic material as well as information. Wallach's choices of subject aren't frivolous: Chanel in some ways changed the world as significantly as did Bell, though with a more positive result -- by being a major influence in releasing women from inhibiting corsets and long skirts that limited their freedom of movement. How much might the comfortable clothes of the 20th and 21st century have contributed to the equality of women in the workplace? I highly recommend the books of Janet Wallach.
December 6, 2010
I like this book even as I recognize its weaknesses, namely:
1. It is too often a mere retelling of Bell's own writings.
2. It is completely biased to Bell's point of view. If she says something happened a certain way, then that's the way it happened. We are almost never provided with an alternate opinion. Sometimes, of course, there is literally no other record to go to for another point of view (like when she is kidnapped by Bedouin in the Empty Quarter), but still.
3. It neither digs deep nor asks hard questions. This made for bland reading at times.
However, Gertrude Bell was a truly amazing person and that saved this book. What a fascinating life she led, in such fascinating times. I loved the second half of the book because it dealt as much with the "drawing lines in the sand" part of organizing the modern Middle East as it did with GB.
(Edited to add: I forgot to mention that Bell's attitude toward women and Islam was at times alarming to me. But it was a different time and she's certainly entitled to her own opinion in a biography about her, I guess.)
1. It is too often a mere retelling of Bell's own writings.
2. It is completely biased to Bell's point of view. If she says something happened a certain way, then that's the way it happened. We are almost never provided with an alternate opinion. Sometimes, of course, there is literally no other record to go to for another point of view (like when she is kidnapped by Bedouin in the Empty Quarter), but still.
3. It neither digs deep nor asks hard questions. This made for bland reading at times.
However, Gertrude Bell was a truly amazing person and that saved this book. What a fascinating life she led, in such fascinating times. I loved the second half of the book because it dealt as much with the "drawing lines in the sand" part of organizing the modern Middle East as it did with GB.
(Edited to add: I forgot to mention that Bell's attitude toward women and Islam was at times alarming to me. But it was a different time and she's certainly entitled to her own opinion in a biography about her, I guess.)
February 26, 2016
I had greatly anticipated reading this book; however, the author's writing style is tedious at best and turned a book that should have been fascinating into drudgery. The first half was especially mind numbing - along the lines of, "she went here, then she went there...." The last third of the book improved dramatically, but by that time, I was just eager to finish it off. I was terribly disappointed.
August 27, 2025
Rich in detail, steeped in history, this is a tribute to Ms bell's intellect and understanding. I know that had Ms Bell been born a boy, there would have been medals, a lordship and a good few films; and he would have been as well known and revered as Lawrence.
April 12, 2020
Review with some minor editing
This might sound a little harsh but at the end of the day, I'm not sure I would have liked knowing Gertrude Bell....or even just meeting her.
That was my first impression and i'm sticking by it honestly.
Larger than life characters are born at any given time throughout human history, and Gertrude certainly defines as one.
Born under the correct start alignment some would say, Gertrude was the favorite daughter of a (very) wealthy businessman that provided her with all the tools to learn as much as could possibly desire... which she did.... and she never looked back.
Her love of the middle east defined her, her travels into it made her (in)famous and her general attitude of i can, i want and i will make it happen garnered her some enemies along the way.
Smart, Strong, Feisty, Intelligent, Independent...and yet alone, so very much alone...Gertrude was only at ease in among men, never liking or even understanding other women...and making no secret of the fact that she found them unbearably dimwitted.
This view of the world she had frankly made me dislike her and, even if ultimately I do consider her vision of middle eastern life and politics accurate, I also think it lacks the female voice that would have enriched her own life and given her a broader perspective of the time and place.
Is Gertrude worth knowing about? yup for sure.
Is Gertrude likable? nah, not really.
Is Gertrude unforgettable? yes, very much.
Kudos to Janet Wallach for sparing no blushes and giving a very engaging portrait of her, that allows us to see the full picture and the full impact of her actions and beliefs, an impact that that is felt today in the 21st century.
FYI - the recent movie of her life is lovely from a visual point of view, yet disappointing from a life story point of view...it focuses itself so much on her love life that it almost makes you believe those men defined who she was and what she did...and nothing could be further from the truth.
Gertrude was her own woman, she owed to no one but her father, who sowed those seeds, the amazing life she had and the remarkable achievements that it was filled of.
Happy Readings!
This might sound a little harsh but at the end of the day, I'm not sure I would have liked knowing Gertrude Bell....or even just meeting her.
That was my first impression and i'm sticking by it honestly.
Larger than life characters are born at any given time throughout human history, and Gertrude certainly defines as one.
Born under the correct start alignment some would say, Gertrude was the favorite daughter of a (very) wealthy businessman that provided her with all the tools to learn as much as could possibly desire... which she did.... and she never looked back.
Her love of the middle east defined her, her travels into it made her (in)famous and her general attitude of i can, i want and i will make it happen garnered her some enemies along the way.
Smart, Strong, Feisty, Intelligent, Independent...and yet alone, so very much alone...Gertrude was only at ease in among men, never liking or even understanding other women...and making no secret of the fact that she found them unbearably dimwitted.
This view of the world she had frankly made me dislike her and, even if ultimately I do consider her vision of middle eastern life and politics accurate, I also think it lacks the female voice that would have enriched her own life and given her a broader perspective of the time and place.
Is Gertrude worth knowing about? yup for sure.
Is Gertrude likable? nah, not really.
Is Gertrude unforgettable? yes, very much.
Kudos to Janet Wallach for sparing no blushes and giving a very engaging portrait of her, that allows us to see the full picture and the full impact of her actions and beliefs, an impact that that is felt today in the 21st century.
FYI - the recent movie of her life is lovely from a visual point of view, yet disappointing from a life story point of view...it focuses itself so much on her love life that it almost makes you believe those men defined who she was and what she did...and nothing could be further from the truth.
Gertrude was her own woman, she owed to no one but her father, who sowed those seeds, the amazing life she had and the remarkable achievements that it was filled of.
Happy Readings!
November 23, 2014
Like its subject, this book is both fascinating and exasperating. The author is more of a chronicler than a storyteller, and at times the larger narrative of Gertrude Bell's life gets lost in the exhausting cascade of details that Wallach provides about Bell's adventures. Bell's transformation into a supporter of Arab self-rule is treated too subtly, and Wallach often frustratingly presents details of Bell's experiences before she sketches the context. But this is still an enlightening read. I found myself constantly startled by how little I knew of this singular woman's role in history.
So much of Gertrude Bell's work happened behind the scenes, and there is a sad dichotomy in this story between her authoritative, dynamic personality and the way that her colleagues both relied on her knowledge but also disdained her influence, took credit for her ideas, and tried to keep her on the periphery of the action because she was a woman. Of course, if she'd been a man that may still have been the case - T.E. Lawrence was treated the same way, at least until after the war. But she persevered. She wasn't trained to be a diplomat - because she was a woman, she wasn't expected to be anything. And yet she became a revered figure among many of her Arab contemporaries and became chief adviser to Faisal. Her idea of Iraq may seem like a naive folly now, or just more British imperialism, but at least it came from an enlightened view of Arab self-rule.
I would've liked to have learned more from this book about how the intelligence that Bell gathered during her travels was used by Lawrence during the Arab revolt, and I wish Wallach had given us a better picture of how Gertrude Bell is viewed by Iraqis today. I guess I'll have to read the other bio of Gertrude Bell, Queen of the Desert.
So much of Gertrude Bell's work happened behind the scenes, and there is a sad dichotomy in this story between her authoritative, dynamic personality and the way that her colleagues both relied on her knowledge but also disdained her influence, took credit for her ideas, and tried to keep her on the periphery of the action because she was a woman. Of course, if she'd been a man that may still have been the case - T.E. Lawrence was treated the same way, at least until after the war. But she persevered. She wasn't trained to be a diplomat - because she was a woman, she wasn't expected to be anything. And yet she became a revered figure among many of her Arab contemporaries and became chief adviser to Faisal. Her idea of Iraq may seem like a naive folly now, or just more British imperialism, but at least it came from an enlightened view of Arab self-rule.
I would've liked to have learned more from this book about how the intelligence that Bell gathered during her travels was used by Lawrence during the Arab revolt, and I wish Wallach had given us a better picture of how Gertrude Bell is viewed by Iraqis today. I guess I'll have to read the other bio of Gertrude Bell, Queen of the Desert.
November 13, 2024
I couldn't be more impressed with Ms. Bell.
Reading of her life and her achievements is so inspiring.
Girls: take a look at this. Her life is awesome.
Reading of her life and her achievements is so inspiring.
Girls: take a look at this. Her life is awesome.
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