This biography presents Gertrude Bell ab adventurous woman who abandoned Victorian England and travelled into the Arab heart of the Middle East.

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Terveisin lumipöllö

What a lovely surprise! Funny enough, I read Robert Byron's book The Road to Oxiana a couple of weeks ago and there he mentions Gertrude Bell. Thank you, lumipöllö!

Finally finished reading this book; started it in July and finished just before Christmas. Gertrude Bell had lived indeed an interesting life and I just wish that the author hadn't buried her under all the information about the history of Middle East. You got totally overwhelmed all the tribes and sheikhs and battles that it started to melt into one big mess. All the historical facts did give a lot of background information but I would have liked to hear more of Gertrude herself. The role of Britain in that area explains partly all the problems there are now. The British really weren't good rulers as they treated the local people with contempt and not bothered to learn the language or culture or treat the people with respect. And if there then was somebody who actually spoke the language, knew the culture and was respected by the Arabs, she was not good enough as she was a woman. It was like the Arabs valued her more than most of the British.