Gertrude Bell was born in England in 1868 to a pretty wealthy family. (July 14- we are almost birthday buddies.) She received a really good education, studying at Queen's College and Lady Margaret Hall at Oxford. She specialized in history, as it interested her and that was also one of the only subjects open to women at that time. (I am also a history major, so I loved this about her.) She traveled all over the place, spending a lot of time in the Middle East. In 1907, she worked as an archeologist (my dream career) with Sir William Ramsay in Anatolia. (A Thousand And One Churches is the book about that experience.) She also met with Lawrence of Arabia, who became her fast friend. They had attended the same school, were in essentially the same line of work, spoke Arabic, and traveled the Middle East extensively. She was held a prisoner for over a week one time. At the outbreak of World War I, she joined the Red Cross and then, along with Lawrence and others, offered up her Middle Eastern intelligence to the government. She was also present for the Armenian Genocide and reported on that. (I am currently learning about this particular event.) She did a multitude of amazing and adventurous things, and I am so inspired by her bravery and determination and love of learning. Sadly, her health began to decline, and she suffered from several illnesses. Her actual cause of death was an overdose of sleeping pills, but it is not known if it was accidental or suicide. She died two days before her birthday on July 12, 1926.

I absolutely loved this book. I cannot believe I had never heard of this woman, her work, or her interesting life at any point in my studies, yet Lawrence of Arabia was spoken about constantly. I think that more female figures, especially those historians and archaeologists, should be talked about and celebrated for their contributions to these fields. I feel that this book was well researched and offered up amazing details. The only real criticism I have of it, which is why I did not give it five stars, is that it seems slightly one sided. It seems like Gertrude Bell was very blunt, somewhat sarcastic, and a little bit obnoxious to deal with. The book made it seem like Gertrude was always the one getting the short end of the stick, (which she probably did in this time period and being a female), but it never seemed to raise the possibility/likelihood that she was just a hard person to deal with or get along with at times. We all know someone who just rubs everyone the wrong way, or that we personally do not get along with for some reason. I think this is the case, and perhaps she also felt like she was smarter or more well educated that other people and was condescending at times. I do not know, but I just felt like there was a little bit of bias in the book. I highly suggest this book if you are interested in Gertrude Bell and the details of her life and adventures, just bear that bias part in mind.