|
|
Article: Foreign affairs The archaeologist, linguist and traveller Gertrude Bell casts her spell on Daniel Johnson
- Article from:
- The Sunday Telegraph London
- Article date:
- August 27, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2006 The Sunday Telegraph London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
|
Daughter of the Desert: The Remarkable Life of Gertrude Bell
BY GEORGINA HOWELL
MACMILLAN, pounds 20, 356 pp
T pounds 18 ( pounds 1.25 p&p) 0870 428 4115
In Greenmantle, the sequel to The Thirty-nine Steps, John Buchan
pits his hero Richard Hannay against a German 'she-devil'. The
sinister Hilda von Einem is an archaeologist-turned-spymistress who
dreams of rousing the Islamic world against the British, and enlists
Hannay's fellow-spy, Sandy, in her project. While Sandy is based on
T. E. Lawrence, the model for Buchan's villain is less obvious - she
was not a German, but an Englishwoman: Major Miss Gertrude Bell,
Oriental Secretary and Director of Antiquities in Baghdad.
What was it about ...