Sara Wheeler

‘I glimpse her ahead of me’ – a solo female traveller follows her hero across Turkey

Gertrude Bell travelled extensively through Turkey before and after the first world war and the author plays dogged detective in her wake

Gertrude Bell with her friend Haji Naji, an Iraqi farmer. [Alamy] 
issue 23 September 2023

Green-eyed Gertrude Bell belongs in Charles Doughty’s Travels in Arabia Deserta, that slab of velvety antique that enthralled the English (they were not yet British) in the love-affair phase of their relationship with the Arabs. County Durham-born to a wealthy industrialist father, Bell (1868-1926) was a key player when the Powers tried ineptly to mould the Middle East, as the Ottoman Empire crumbled.

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