The author gives absolutely no insight into Gertrude Bell and just recites the itinerary of one trip after another. Bell is made out to be an obsessive cartoon character running around the map like Bugs Bunny. After climbing the Matterhorn, she mysteriously decides to expensively explore the desert -- alone. I'd really like to know more about her. Someone suggested Desert Queen" by Janet Wallach.

I have come to enjoy memoir because it is full of feeling as well as information. But Georgina Howell's biography is so full of excerpts from the letters of Gertrude Bell--the subject of this excellent book--that we get a comprehensive sense of Bell's feelings. Howell makes it clear that Bell consistently understated the difficulties in her life. It is certainly a life to know about and to be celebrated.

Gertrude Bell, who died in 1926, is known as the woman behind the creation of modern Iraq. She was born into a wealthy socially conservative family and displayed her brilliance and non-conformity early on. She attended Oxford and was the first woman to attain First Class Honors in History. She traveled to Persia, began her studies of Persian language and literature in Teheran, and fell in love with a man unacceptable to her family. She returned to England, where she continued her studies, adding Arabic to the mix. Never one to live life half way, she discovered the challenge of mountain climbing and conquered several peaks in the Alps, sometimes being the first woman to do so.

Bell made three trips through the uncharted Arabian Peninsula, visiting archeological sites, carefully creating maps, and dropping in to visit sheiks in full evening wear. An important purpose of her travels was to learn about the alliances and customs of the numerous tribes. This knowledge was applied when she began working with the British government to build a unified Arabic nation after the defeat of the Germans and their allies the Turks in WWI.

The unification was a struggle. Howell writes: "The army wins the territory, and the administration takes over; but in Mesopotamia the struggle to install conditions conducive to peace and eventual prosperity would prove as daunting as the battlefront itself...Arabs spoke a common language but were not a common people..." This struggle, which took place almost 100 years ago, has many similarities with the Iraq struggle today. Bell's later life was so intertwined with the founding of Iraq that the details of the political struggle cannot be left out.

Howell does a splendid job of bringing the astonishing Gertrude Bell to life. Her descriptions of the often bleak landscape, the oases of sheikdoms, and the contrast of desert life with Bell's luxurious wardrobe, living style and traveling entourage enliven the biography. Fortunately for us, Bell's family and friends saved her detailed letters. Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations illuminates the many centuries-old causes of the current struggle in the Middle East.

by Judith Helburn
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

Well written---engaging story. Historically comprehensive. Provides valuable insight into historical background of current Iraq conflict.

Gertrude Bell was an amazing woman. This book is ponderous. The style is flat, the author's point of view uncritical. It reads like a boring history book. If she had done more research instead of just quoting letters and anecdotes from Gertrude's letters she could have fleshed Gertrude out and made her 3 dimensional. There are other authors that have done justice to Gertrude and made her come alive for us to admire.
This book leaves you feeling like you know alot of facts about Gertrude but nothing about the woman she was.

This is a fantastically researched biographical work. It is very in-depth and the research is extremely scholarly. However, my only complaint with this work is that in several places in the book, the timeline is rather fuzzy. I understand that the author is trying to explain certain points of Gertrude's life with more clarity, but it does make it a little difficult to understand when certain things are happening and within what context, i.e. her relationships with men as well as her experiences mountain climbing. The book regains its momentum when discussing the situation in the Middle East. It would have been interesting to see some discussion of the politics of modern day Iraq, as well as connections to British and American policies currently. However, it was a very scholarly work which was also a pleasure to read.

A terrific read that compels one to eagerly turn each page. One learns of the role of the monied upper class in the colonial politics of the 19/20th century British empire, the Empire's dominant role in the world, the brillance and the incompetences of many of its inexperienced administrators, unconsumated affairs conducted through ambivalent correspondence, Arabia and its vastness, mysteries, nomads, tribes and intricate politics, and the role of women (Major Miss Bell!. A must read (and ought to have read) for anyone agonizing over Iraq including our President!

I found this book riveting from beginning to end. It is hard to believe one woman lived all these adventures. I gained insight into the modern problems in Iraq and met an extraordinary lady.

If only we had someone of her insight today to help resolve the issues that plague Iraq, many remaining unchanged since GLB's day (tribalism, lack of a clear leader, etc).

If you want to be taken away to another place and time and gain valuable background into modern issues, read this wonderful book.

There are many aspects to this one woman's short life. I hope there will be more interest in her and future works on it. This book, while densely packed is, by the nature of its outsized subject, an outline for future writers.

Despite her family's wealth and stature in England, Gertrude chose not use her time with society or charity fund raising. She used her part of the family fortune and the education she fought to get for adventure. Her spirit took her to the mountains and then the desert. She was steeped in historical knowledge as she explored the antiquities of the desert. She was not a dilatante. She spent years learning the languages and memorizing poetry and understanding the people. In WW I and after she was a valuable asset for the British and attempted to navigate a course that would improve the lot of the people in the Middle East.

Perhaps I'm too harsh in giving 4 stars and not 5 because only so much can be packed into a volume for the general audience. For Gertrude's early years, I would have liked more description of the desert journeys, more on her findings and how they fit into the evolving knowledge of the of this area and more photos of her caravan life. For the later years, Howell explains what the lay reader needs to know to follow Gertrude's participation in the founding of Iraq. A lot had to be omitted, since this is a bio and not a history of the region, but I didn't get a feel for her actual status in the transition office or even if the papers she wrote were foundational.

The author has a very readable style. She introduces you to the "Person" Gertrude Bell and also presents an understanding of her inner life. I highly recommend this book for readers of biography and those interested in this region and this period of history. It will whet your appetite for more.

This book is, unlike "Desert Queen", well researched, better edited and more importantly, well written. Georgina Howell brings us a superbly crafted work on the complex and truly remarkable life of Gertrude Bell. If you want to read only one book about Gertrude Bell this, in my opinion, is the best.

An interesting book about a very interesting life, however it was already done better in "Desert Queen" by Janet Wallach

Wonderful well written story of a couragous and captivating woman who followed her heart and her dreams. She had an impact in all she chose to do. Her time in the Middle East along with her British colleages should be a lesson to us today about the culture and the danger of the Muslim fundamentalists and fanaticals and their control and domination over women and the young who they keep in ignorance and poverty.

Georgina Howell has written a magnificent biography of a magnificent spirit, Gertrude Bell--famed mountain climber, archeologist, traveller, author, translator, diarist, and a contributor to the establishment of the Iraq state. Bell was a formidable personality with sharp intelligence and fantastic amounts of energy. She lived most of her life in the Middle East, becoming fluent in Arabic and acquainting herself with all the important sheikhs and tribes of the region. She was so assimilated into the culture of the area that King Faisal told her she could not speak of returning home when she went to England, that Baghdad was her true home.

Bell was a lifelong atheist and when her energy was depleted and illness kept her from an active life, she committed suicide at the age of 57. She had worked herself near to death in the cause of Iraqi independence.
This record of her life and work is a stunning achievement--first rate all the way. What a woman! What a book!

Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations

By Georgina Howell
Reviewed by Philip Henry

First, there was T.E. Lawrence: charismatic, mysterious, sexually ambivalent, and photogenic. His immersion in Arab culture is well known. But no one knows much about the accomplished individualist Gertrude Bell. Well- traveled and well-connected, she was the first woman to obtain a "First" in Modern History at Oxford; climbed the Alps; crossed the Desert on camel caravans; was the confidante of British and Arab ministers and Kings and drafted the political outline of modern day Iraq.
(As if that weren't enough, she was a linguist, archaeologist, and journalist)

Curiously, in all I've read and heard about Iraq, there has been little if anything said about the role of Victorian and Edwardian Britain in the creation of the Middle East. Certainly, Britain was "Present at the Creation" of modern Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Syria. Winston Churchill served as Colonial Secretary beginning in the 1920's, and enlisted Bell (who had been instrumental in British Intelligence in WW I) to help formulate British policy toward Iraq, then Mesopotamia or, "Between the Rivers."
The First World War ended in an Armistice with little or no resolution of the underlying disputes, and the former Ottoman Empire became ripe for foreign occupation. Britain became the De Facto ruler of Iraq for thirty years: exercising a benevolent mandate and setting the stage for the events that have followed.

Although politically active, Gertrude Bell remained a scholar at heart, and her interest in archaeology resulted in the creation of the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad much of which has been looted in the wars that have followed.

Bell's personal life was complex: she never married, apparently never recovering from the death at Gallipoli of a young man with whom she had fallen in love. She was deeply affected by World War One. As a volunteer secretary in charge of answering inquiries from families of missing soldiers, she answered each letter individually. In her letters, she lamented the loss of an entire generation of young British Officers and men: "four thousand men over control of a trench") She was found dead in a hotel room in 1926, an apparent suicide at age 57. Bell left voluminous notes, diaries and letters, many of which have been incorporated by Georgina Howell into this excellent biography. In a prescient letter to her mother in 1920, she wrote:

"But what I do feel pretty sure of is that if we leave this country to go to the dogs it will mean that we shall have to reconsider our whole position in Asia. If Mesopotamia (Iraq) 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. With these few words I remain your affectionate daughter, Gertrude "

-- 30 --

Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations


Reviewed by Philip Henry

First, there was T.E. Lawrence: charismatic, mysterious, sexually ambivalent, and photogenic. His immersion in Arab culture is well known. But no one knows much about the accomplished individualist Gertrude Bell. Well- traveled and well-connected, she was the first woman to obtain a "First" in Modern History at Oxford; climbed the Alps; crossed the Desert on camel caravans; was the confidante of British and Arab ministers and Kings and drafted the political outline of modern day Iraq.
(As if that weren't enough, Gertrude was a linguist, archaeologist, and journalist)

Curiously, in all I've read and heard about Iraq, there has been little if anything said about the role of Victorian and Edwardian Britain in the creation of the Middle East. Certainly, Britain was "Present at the Creation" of modern Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Syria. Winston Churchill served as Colonial Secretary beginning in the 1920's, and enlisted Bell (who had been instrumental in British Intelligence in WW I) to help formulate British policy toward Iraq, then Mesopotamia or, "Between the Rivers."
The First World War ended in an Armistice with little or no resolution of the underlying disputes, and the former Ottoman Empire became ripe for foreign occupation. Britain became the De Facto ruler of Iraq for thirty years: exercising a benevolent mandate.

Although politically active, Gertrude Bell remained a scholar at heart, and her interest in archaeology resulted in the creation of the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. Much of that repository has been looted in the wars that have followed.

Bell's personal life was complex: she never married, apparently never recovering from the death at Gallipoli of a young man with whom she had fallen in love. She was deeply affected by World War One. As a volunteer secretary in charge of answering inquiries from families of missing soldiers, she answered each letter individually. In her letters, she lamented the loss of an entire generation of young British Officers and men: "four thousand men over control of a trench") She was found dead in a hotel room in 1926, an apparent suicide at age 57. Bell left voluminous notes, diaries and letters, many of which have been incorporated by Georgina Howell into this excellent biography.
She wrote her Mother in 1920:

"But what I do feel pretty sure of is that if we leave this country to go to the dogs it will mean that we shall have to reconsider our whole 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. With these few words I remain your affectionate daughter, Gertrude "

First, there was T.E. Lawrence: charismatic, mysterious, sexually ambivalent, and photogenic. His immersion in Arab culture is well known. But no one knows much about the accomplished individualist Gertrude Bell. Well- traveled and well-connected, she was the first woman to obtain a "First" in Modern History at Oxford; climbed the Alps; crossed the Desert on camel caravans; was the confidante of British and Arab ministers and Kings, was the first woman officer in the British intelligence units, and drafted the political outline of modern day Iraq. As if that weren't enough, she was a linguist (Farsi, Arabic, Turkish); an accomplished archaeologist; and a gifted journalist.

Curiously, in all I've read and heard about Iraq, there has been little if anything said about the role of Victorian and Edwardian Britain in the creation of the Middle East. Certainly, Britain was "Present at the Creation" of modern Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Syria. Winston Churchill served as Colonial Secretary beginning in the 1920's, and enlisted Bell (who had been instrumental in British Intelligence in WW I) to help formulate British policy toward Iraq, then Mesopotamia or, "Between the (Tigris and Euphrates) Rivers."
The First World War ended in an Armistice with little or no resolution of the underlying disputes, and the former Ottoman Empire became ripe for foreign occupation. For decades, Iraq was effectively ruled by Britain as a British Mandate area under supervision of the League of Nations. But the foundation was established for foreign intervention in Iraqi affairs, and for the ethnic and cultural differences that still mark Iraq today.

Although politically active, Gertrude Bell remained a scholar at heart, and her interest in archaeology resulted in the creation of the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. Much of that repository has been looted in the wars that have followed.(Despite the efforts of the international cultural community, the destruction of Iraq's cultural heritage goes on)


Bell's personal life was complex: she never married, apparently never recovering from the death at Galipoli of a young man with whom she had fallen in love. The First World War affected her deeply: as the officer in charge of writing letters to the family's of slain British soldiers, she personalized each letter instead of the official "fear telegram" from the War Department" The waste of an entire generation of young British officers and men over a few yards of territory... the death of 4,000 men over control of a trench? She was found dead in a hotel room in 1926, an apparent suicide. Bell left voluminous notes, diaries ,letters,and photos... many of which have been incorporated by Georgina Howell into this excellent biography.
In one precient letter to her mother, Gertrude wrote:" But what I do feel pretty sure of is that if we leave this country to go to the dogs it will mean that we shall have to reconsider our whole 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.

With these few words I remain your affectionate daughter Gertrude"

First, there was T.E. Lawrence: charismatic, mysterious, sexually ambivalent, and photogenic. His immersion in Arab culture is well known. But no one knows much about the accomplished individualist Gertrude Bell. Well- traveled and well-connected, she was the first woman to obtain a "First" in Modern History at Oxford; climbed the Alps; crossed the Desert on camel caravans; was the confidante of British and Arab ministers and Kings and drafted the political outline of modern day Iraq.

Curiously, in all I've read and heard about Iraq, there has been little if anything said about the role of Victorian and Edwardian Britain in the creation of the Middle East. Certainly, Britain was "Present at the Creation" of modern Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Syria. Winston Churchill served as Colonial Secretary beginning in the 1920's, and enlisted Bell (who had been instrumental in British Intelligence in WW I) to help formulate British policy toward Iraq, then Mesopotamia or, "Between the (Tigris and Euphrates) Rivers."
The First World War ended in an Armistice with little or no resolution of the underlying disputes, and the former Ottoman Empire became ripe for foreign occupation.

Although politically active, Gertrude Bell remained a scholar at heart, and her interest in archaeology resulted in the creation of the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. Much of that repository has been looted in the wars that have followed.(Despite the efforts of the international cultural community, the destruction of Iraq's cultural heritage goes on)


Bell's personal life was complex: she never married, apparently never recovering from the death of a young man with whom she had fallen in love. She was found dead in a hotel room in 1926, an apparent suicide. Bell left voluminous notes, diaries and letters, many of which have been incorporated by Georgina Howell into this excellent biography.
Gertrude Bell "left behind a benevolent and effective government," Howell concludes. Unfortunately, that doesn't apply at the moment.

****

First, there was T.E. Lawrence: charismatic, mysterious, sexually ambivalent, and photogenic. His immersion in Arab culture is well known. But no one knows much about the accomplished individualist Gertrude Bell. Well- traveled and well-connected, she was the first woman to obtain a "First" in Modern History at Oxford; climbed the Alps; crossed the Desert on camel caravans; was the confidante of British and Arab ministers and Kings and drafted the political outline of modern day Iraq.

Curiously, in all I've read and heard about Iraq, there has been little if anything said about the role of Victorian and Edwardian Britain in the creation of the Middle East. Certainly, Britain was "Present at the Creation" of modern Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Syria. Winston Churchill served as Colonial Secretary beginning in the 1920's, and enlisted Bell (who had been instrumental in British Intelligence in WW I) to help formulate British policy toward Iraq, then Mesopotamia or, "Between the (Tigris and Euphrates) Rivers."
The First World War ended in an Armistice with little or no resolution of the underlying disputes, and the former Ottoman Empire became ripe for foreign occupation.

Although politically active, Gertrude Bell remained a scholar at heart, and her interest in archaeology resulted in the creation of the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. Much of that repository has been looted in the wars that have followed.

Bell's personal life was complex: she never married, apparently never recovering from the death of a young man with whom she had fallen in love. She was found dead in a hotel room in 1926, an apparent suicide. Bell left voluminous notes, diaries and letters, many of which have been incorporated by Georgina Howell into this excellent biography.
Gertrude Bell "left behind a benevolent and effective government," Howell concludes. Unfortunately, that doesn't apply at the moment.

****

Georgina Howell brings to life Gertrude Bell, a woman whose accomplishments deserve to be better known than they have been. Born into the sixth-richest family in Britain in 1868, Bell got an education equal to that of a man. Young Bell was a "social hand grenade" due to her extraordinary self-confidence and intellectual brilliance. Bell did not get along well with the less developed personalities and intellects around her.

Despite her efforts to get married and have a family of her own, Bell never managed to find true happiness. As Howell clearly demonstrates through her book, Bell never fully recovered from the premature death of Henry Cadogan, with whom she fell in love in 1892. Bell fluctuated all her life between looking for personal fulfillment and devoting herself to the well-being of the community for no reward.

Despite these repeated setbacks in her private life, Bell would emerge as one of the most important architects of the modern Middle East. Bell first discovered the region when she traveled to Persia (modern Iran) in 1892. Bell's obsession with archeology became the driver behind her desert expeditions before WWI. Bell published different books about her archeological findings and learned to speak Arabic on top of five other languages during that period.

The knowledge that Bell got about the Middle East and its people proved invaluable when Britain fought the Turks in the region during the Great War. The same knowledge played a decisive roll in leading the Arabs to nationhood in the aftermath of WWI. Unsurprisingly, Bell has been compared to T.E. Lawrence, also known as Lawrence of Arabia, who launched the Arab Revolt. Unlike Lawrence, Bell remained dedicated to the cause of Arabs until they played a leading role in countries such as Transjordan (modern Jordan) and Iraq. Thanks to Bell's managerial skills, Iraq emerged as a working Sunni-dominated polity under the leadership of King Faisal by the time of her suicide in Baghdad in 1926.

Most importantly, Howell gives contemporary readers some valuable insights into modern Iraq that I had the privilege to discover long before the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The chapter "Government through Gertrude" is probably the most fascinating and also the most relevant of all in fixing a broken Iraq. Bell was someone that every prominent man in Iraq, regardless of races, creeds, and allegiances, could trust. Bell kept her word and was fearless in trusting her life to these prominent men when traveling alone in their lands. Bell not only won trust for the British administration, but also worked on improving relationships between the different races, creeds, and allegiances. Unsurprisingly, Bell was greeted as "Khatun," i.e., desert queen, or "Umm al Muminin," i.e., Mother of the Faithful, after Ayishah, the wife of Prophet Muhammad.

Brilliantly written, incisive, informative, judicious and fair, informed and insightful - the best of the best biographies that blend a personal story within the complexities of historical context. Bell is important to know for all the obvious reasons, and Howell gives her to us as a real, living individual, an extraordinary woman who molded her restrictive world into a limitless universe of meanng and opportunity. As a followup to Wallach's earlier Dessert Queen, this raises the telling of Bell's life and times to sublime and memorable heights. It has a permanent place in my library. Thank you Ms. Howell!

This book is among the top 5 biographies I have ever read (yes, I do read a lot!). The descriptions of Miss Bell's travels thru the desert and her interactions with the sheiks are especially well written; at times I actually felt I was there. I would also recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of Iraq. The different cultures and ethnic groups in this part of the world have not changed for centuries. Finally, I would recommend this book to folks interested in the struggles of women working to make their place in a man's world. There are many excellent stories about Miss Bell efforts to make the British military listen to her excellent advice. Thank you, Georgina Howell for a wonderful book.

Current events in star crossed Iraq have brought out a renewed interest in Gertrude Bell (GLB). Much of it seems political, concerned with pointing fingers at "causes" for the current situation as arising out of the World War One aftermath. As is typical of today's shallow, axe-grinding treatment of history, most of what I see being described as Miss Bell's role at that time is overly generalized, if not downright misleading. Many absorbing biographies on GLB have been published. This one, esp. in the "Government By Gertrude" chapter," does a very nice job of showing the devil in the details of how King Faisal, his small staff, and English advisors pulled off something (i.e., guiding Iraq from a leadership mish mash to becoming an independent state) that moderns are still in a quandry as to how it may be done ... again. Keeping the cradle of civilization peaceful and prosperous, in spite of pressures from war lords and religious gangsters fighting over hegemony, and other nations wanting to plunder its resources, may always be a problem, and that is visible in this presentation as you see financial depression and ill health cutting drastically short the time Faisal, and Gertrude (herself the last of the British advisors to care that the Iraqi's got a fair deal out of the breakup of the Ottoman Empire) have to stabilize the milieu resulting from the 1919 WW I Peace Treaty settlements. Also, a vivid description of GLB's climbing adventures is given in this book so that what seems unbelievable for its time becomes undeniably substantiated. In spite of there being great volumes of data available as source material for Gretrude Bell stories, there is still much that has not been explicated, and much that will always remain mysterious from the time when she was a "spy" associated with the Arab Bureau. New pictures and references to some contemporary accounts not widely revealed make this a worthwhile acquisition for a devotee of the study of Gertrude and the remarkable people of the late Victorian, Edwardian, and World War I periods in English history. It may not be long before what's published on Gertrude will catch up with what's been done for her Arab Bureau cohort, T. E. Lawrence. I do have a big question, however, about a footnote at the bottom of page 373 that indicates a source as "Ronald Bodley, a descendant of Gertrude's ..." Hmmm. The word "descendant" usually implies relationship denoting a blood offspring. Gertrude was supposedly a "spinster" and without issue. Should the term "relative" be more aptly used in this case, or does the author have something more compelling to reveal?! Finally, I wish book editors would be more encouraging of authors to give some details, in epilogues for example, about the adventures they encountered while doing research for their subject; about all we have is what we see brought out on C-Cpan Book TV.

Gertrude Bell is someone I've come across many times -- in everything from scholarly to not-so-scholarly history books to the writings of Vita Sackville-West -- but until I picked up Georgina Howell's richly detailed and expertly written book, the woman I had glimpsed over the years merely suggested a wealthy Victorian woman (which Bell was) known more for her eccentricity than actual wit (not remotely the case).

Intellectually brilliant (fluent in 6 languages, including Arabic and Persian, and was the first woman to take a "first" at Oxford in Modern History), supremely courageous, wise and very human, I have been delighted and honored to at last sit down with Gertrude Bell and over the course of 300+ pages, make her acquaintance. In Howell's capable hands, Bell comes quickly and fully to life, holding my attention and demanding my admiration.

A somewhat unexpected bonus have been the extraordinary (and harrowing) tales of Bell's journeys across the Bedouin deserts in the years before the first world war. I've come away from these accounts (with their accompanying photographs, courtesy of Bell, who in addition to her other gifts was an accomplished photographer) with a more profound understanding of the middle-eastern world that we encounter today.

I recommend this book without reservation to anyone with an interest in middle-eastern history, Victorian women, early 20th century achievements in mountain climbing, Victorian history -- and more. It's all there. It's a great book, about an extraordinary life. And it should be required reading for anyone who imagines himself or herself to be knowledgeable about the middle-east, or who wants to know more. Unlike so many "mid-east experts" Bell truly was an expert, with knowledge born of a great passion for that world, served by a magnificient wisdom and intelligence.