Iraq, Persia, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia were conjured up but poor Kurdistan (that had been promised its own state) is still waiting. Most of the Middle East had been part of the Ottoman Empire, but with Turkey defeated and oil now seen to be so important, an undignified series of negotiations took place and the whole vast area split into brand new countries with puppet leaders. The book was doubly fascinating for me in the way that it portrays the casual arrogance of imperial powers and the patronizing way that they (particularly France and the UK) divided up the region after the end of the war. As a result she spent a great deal of time with the Sheiks and other local leaders, accepted by them as almost an honorary man. She operated very much as a lone-wolf, looked down on by the all-male officials and not fitting in with their wives. Just prior to the outbreak of the First World War she began to spend most of her time in Mesopotamia and became a kind of amateur spy and agent feeding information to the colonial offices in India and Egypt as well as the UK Government back in London. (She had two great loves – the first was deemed to have insufficient prospects by her father and the second was a married man who was killed at Gallipoli).

She did expect to get married, have children and play second fiddle to a husband, but never did. Oddly for such an ambitious and atypical woman, she was staunchly anti-suffragist, seemingly thinking of herself as an exception.

She went on to become a noted mountaineer and traveled throughout the Middle-East as an explorer and antiquarian.

A strong willed and intelligent youngster, she was one of the first women in England to be allowed to attend a university. The book covers her life from the late 1800s through the late 1920s. That included choosing Iraq’s first King – Faisal – and making sure he was put on the throne.

She drew its borders, foresaw the difficulties, recommended how it should be governed, and negotiated and politicked until she got her way. Little remembered until the recent Iraq wars, it was she who sat down in 1919 and quite literally invented the country. This fascinating account, set during the height of British imperialism, follows the life of the remarkable Gertrude Bell. Jack’s guest Monday book review – Desert Queen by Janet Wallach

Janet wallach books