Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations

She has been called the female Lawrence of Arabia, which, while not inaccurate, fails to give Gertrude Bell her due. At one time she was the most powerful woman in the British Empire, a nation builder, the driving force behind the creation of Iraq. Born in 1868 into a world of privilege, she turned her back on debutante balls and instead chose to read history at Oxford, where she took a First in only two years. Bell would go on to become an archaeologist, spy, Arabist, linguist, author, poet, ph…