Gertrude Bell - I think I'm in love -
Or, okay, not so much really....but definitely entranced.
Gertrude Bell was a genteel Englishwoman who travelled to Persia and fell in love with the place and the people. She did not want to get married, or maybe couldn't (I'm not sure yet), and lived a life of crazy adventure.
She lived and died there, wandering the deserts; she spoke Bedouin practically natively...and was really the closest thing to a founding mother (hee) that Iraq has. The tribes welcomed her warmly. She travelled "alone" (with a caravan of servants!) and would still, even in the desert, eat her lunch on fine china.
Gertrude Bell not only worked for the new goverment of Iraq, she drew its outlines. She created it in so many ways with all of the beauty and tragedy we experience there today. She knew T.E. Lawrence and King Faisal personally. The Bedouins considered her "an honorary man".
Just - wow. She sounds amazing. i have to get the new biography that came out on her, even though I know it has a sad ending.
Right now, her house and tomb are closed because of the fighting.
I would love to live a life like that. Except, well, I like my creature comforts. Just hearing about her makes me yearn to travel to a desert.