I was so sorry to come to the end of this book. Every page was fascinating, written and thoroughly researched by Georgina Howell who gives us a fascinating account of a remarkable life. Gertrude Bell, born of a wealthy Victorian family, educated at Oxford, spent most of her life traveling through the Middle East, in style and on horse or camelback, and becoming very involved in its development during the early twentieth century. She had a major role in the founding of Iraq and the democratic election of its first King, Faisal, and was present as the victorious Allied powers reshaped the Arab world after World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman empire. Consulted and trusted by many powerful men from Churchill to King Faisal, her knowledge of Arabic and the ways of the Arabs- and the West- made her an invaluable resource to the British and Arabs alike.What this book taught me was how little most of us know about this era in history, about the Arab world, its customs and dramas, its personalities and clashes with the Western world which continue to this day. I was profoundly moved when I read at the end of the book that the Iraq Museum for which Gertrude had spent her last days painstakingly collecting artifacts (she became an archaeologist in order to do so) was looted of some ten thousand items and closed in 2003.I can't recommend this book strongly enough. I had previously read Freya Stark's biography, "Passionate Nomad" about another brave British woman who traveled through the mideast, and I plan to read "A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T.E. Lawrence" (Lawrence of Arabia). This triumvirate had a profound influence on the Arab world which is well worth understanding.