Queen of the Desert - a biography of the female Lawrence of Arabia. Gertrude Bell
by Mason, Fergus
pub. Book Caps(Life Caps) - USA - Golgotha Press - CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform - Scotts Valley, California (a part of Amazon . com) - copyright 2014     softcover   isbn 9781497502840 - - - 168 p.
This book is a biography of Gertrude Bell. It covers the earlier part of her life more thoroughly than a another very thorough biography of Gertrude Bell - authored by Fergus Mason. Desert Queen - The extraordinary life of Gertrude Bell - Adventurer. Advisor to Kings. Ally of Lawrence of Arabia - by Jan Wallach, which much more thoroughly covers the latter part of her life and work during WWI and the campaign against the Ottoman empire (Turkey), and after WWI working out arranging the post war countries of the area which was part of the Ottoman empire and became independent nations Syria, Iraq, Arabia, and Palesting.

Mason did a good job describing the earlier life of Gertrude Bell, including her schooling and adventure laden years as a mountain climber in Europe, doing several difficult and record climbs in the alps including the Materhorn. Her love life was also described, and the death of both her male friends, the first dying of disease in the middle east and the man she was fond of dying in the disasterous Callipoli Peninsula military campaign.
Mason went on to describe Gertrude Bells work during and after the war, setting up the countries That the Ottoman empire lost during the was, and her death in Baghdad. While the book by Jan Eallach does a much better job describing Gertrude Bells later life, Fergus Masons book does a better job describing her early life.
I recommend reading both books to get a more thorough picture of this remarkable person, and how she affected the current organization of this part of the world.

~ 2019-10-11 ~

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