5 comments about The Six Wives of Henry VIII.

1. I recieved this book in perfect condition and it came a day before the estimated time of arrival. Thank you.



2. The book is great so far. I ordered it because its my ex girlfriends favorite book and i trust her taste in books.



3. What I liked most about this book is also what since distresses me most about films circulating on this topic. Weir so thoroughly researches the profusion of biographic material available (besides Britain, courts throughout Europe had documention on the wives of Henry and him) that it is clear there is no need to fictionalise this fascinating story (you wouldn't even try to imagine it). And although it lends itself so well to a series (or a film) once you have read this book the inaccuracies in (Gregory's, for example) fictionalisions on the screen tend to get annoying. Wonderful book -the story is historic and timeless at the same time. (If you can recommend a good, unembellished biographic DVD, please do.)



4. The Six Wives of Henry VIII
   Wonderful book. Very well written. It has increased my desire to know more about Henry the VIII and his times.



5. Very informative book! Weir manages to give us a detailed description of the personalities of each of these six queens. What makes this book such a success is that its very easy to read making it impossible to get bored!

1 comments about Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age.

1. This is one of those books that takes two familiar lives--those of Mahatma Gandhi and Winston Churchill--and tells them in parallel. The idea is that the two men influenced each other's goals and lives much more than has been acknowledged in the past. The two only met once: in 1906 when Churchill was Colonial Undersecretary, and Gandhi was lobbying on behalf of Indian independence. Author Herman makes this the center of the book in some ways, which is strange given that it happens very quickly in the book (on about page 130 of what's a 600-page tome) but it works, because the two men seem to have built impressions of one another resting in part on this meeting.
   
   Herman has a number of things to say about both men. He spends about equal time with each, discussing the central issues of their lives and how the other person fit into each stage of the history of the 20th Century. For instance, when he's talking about Churchill, Herman recounts his attitude towards Indian independence and towards Gandhi personally. The book also works as a history of the latter part of the British Raj in India, from approximately the turn of the century to independence. There's a lot of interesting stuff in here, including the fact that Churchill's time "in the wilderness" during the run-up to World War II may have been due to his attitude towards India (he opposed independence resolutely) as much as his opposition to Hitler and appeasement. Gandhi comes across as a naïve idealist who thought he could create a country where everyone worked a spinning wheel and there were no factories, who made speeches that set off riots, but always seemed to think he was only encouraging non-violence.
   
   I enjoyed this book a great deal. It's long, and there's a lot of material here, but it's very informative and has a different take on things. I would recommend it highly.

5 comments about The Children of Henry VIII.

1. Once again (I bought three books related with Henry VIII) the contents were the expected, the conditions in wich I received the book were perfect, and in a very reasonable lapse of time



2. From the moment I picked up this book, I got glued. I have never read anything about Henry or his children in the past. I had been wanting to read about Elizabeth but it took awhile for me to find the right book. I read many reviews on the books written about her and based on those reviews, Alison Weir was the biographer I chose. Many have commented how she has put this book and the book on Elizabeths adult life together very well. And she has by my opinion. I'm still reading the book and look forward to reading about Elizabeth's adulthood.



3. As usual Alison Weir has written a great non-fiction. The research that she does makes her my number one author.



4. This was my first voluntary non fiction historical read. I am impressed! This story was very easy reading. I don't think I really had any idea what was going on back then, the English "subjects" must have been completely at a loss as to what religion to practice. I was disappointed that the book didn't go more into Elizabeth's reign but I now understand that there is another book out there ready to explain it. The only advice I could offer someone who is about to read it is: keep up with people's names/titles. As they are given (and taken away) titles they are from then on referred to as their new title. If you miss the transition or don't make a metal note, you get lost as to who the author is talking about.
   
   I think my biggest shock was when Mary took over, after complaining and moaning about being able to practice her own religion (Catholic), and how she shouldn't have to give up her beliefs...moan...moan...moan (she did a lot of that). She takes over and forces her own religion onto everyone else, I had no idea "Bloody Mary" was a real name, I just thought it was something you scared the crap out of your friend with in the girls bathroom back in middle school. I just dated myself didn't I?
   
   Final thought: I enjoy fiction for the most part, I actually recommended this book to friends.



5. Alison Weir has done it again. I love historical fiction, including such as The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory, and wanted to expand my reading to nonfiction. I started with Weir's Six Wives of King Henry VIII and was not at all disappointed! I just finished Children of Henry VIII and could not be happier with it. (though it is misleading to think that she discusses Elizabeth's actual reign because she does not) By this did not prevent me from giving it a well deserved 5 stars. She made historical nonfiction exciting! I am now looking for more of her books. She is fair, unbaised, and I truly appreciated how she would present ideas and clearly state what evidence did or did not support certain perspectives. I learned much and am thrilled to add it to my library.

5 comments about The Life of Elizabeth I.

1. I love reading books on the royal family,and this is a great book. Lots of history, very interesting, best book I've read in a long time. She was a great lady. Get ready for a LONG read!



2. Weir does a great job of giving the flavor of the times and the Virgin Queen. However, she gets bogged down in too much detail sometimes. There are hidden bits of humor that are fun to find, as well.
   
   Overall I believe this is a good biography of the Queen, however, it isn't for those looking for a quick or simple read.



3. This magnificent book has me convinced that a woman can rule a complex country. My mind is changed and I think it's time for this country to elect a female president.



4. This book reads like a history book and not a story book so might get a bit boring for some. But I liked it. It gave insight on even the smallest things in QE1 life (clothes,her teeth,household, etc) I think this book covers alot of things in her life and I am glade I bought this book!



5. While I recognize that her neverending courtships, both for politics and her own vanity are important, I do feel that this subject dominated the book. Of course Dudley and especially Essex reflect her faults. The book does not focus on many other very important aspects of her reign. It seems to want to be a "love story" as opposed to a complete biography. I did find it to be "easy reading" for a book of this kind but I must recommend Anne Somerset's biography for a more well rounded and informed view.

5 comments about Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage.

1. The extraordinary record of Ernest Shackleton and his company of the "Endurance". They set out for the South Pole, but their shp was caught in pack ice, and eventually destroyed. Read how Shacckleton and a few members of his crew set out in one of the ship's boats to find rescue for the remaining men. Courage and loyalty in the extreme.



2. This book was exactly what I wanted and it arrived in great shape. The service was excellent; thank you!



3. Great book! We used this book in our book club. Everyone enjoyed it! Very interesting and kept your attention. You really felt like you were there on the ice with the men.



4. This book is a treasure. It's hands down the best retelling of a survivor tale that I've read. The author just tells the story in such a simple and yet compelling way. The details that are included are incredible. And the story is totally miraculous. I recommend this book to anyone who likes history or tales of courage/adventure. I was blown away by Shackletons (and his men's) accomplishment in the face of what was should have been sure death.



5. There's not much to add to the almost 400 reviews preceding-other than another five stars.
   
   Working almost exclusively with a palette of black, white, gray and blue, Lansing manages to craft a vivid account of the Imperial Trans Antarctic Expedition of 1914. As others have mentioned, this story, as interpreted by Lansing, is so engrossing you won't want to put the book down. (Even after a second or third time!) It's also an interesting perspective on leadership under the most dismal conditions that can be imagined.
   
   A tidbit from one of the one star reviews that deserves mention: there was more than one publisher for the paperback versions of this book; Carroll & Graf, and Tyndale. As I understand, the Carroll & Graf edition contains the familiar secular foreword followed by Lansing's original text. The Tyndale edition has a Christian themed foreword from James C. Dobson, followed by Lansing's text edited for a Christian audience. IF this bothers you, make sure you're getting the Carroll & Graf version! (Thanks, Joel Abrams, for that information.)

5 comments about The Man Who Made Lists.

1. I don't know how much of that was poor writing, how much of it was an often two-dimensional Roget, and how much of that was lack of source materials.
   
   I vote primarily for the former, though.
   
   Given the amount of near-psychotic depression in Roget's family, Kendall could have done much more interplay between that and Thesaurus categories than he actually did. Just telling us he was a "word person" rather than a "people person" could have been done in a book of 50-70 fewer pages.
   
   In short, Kendall didn't develop a good enough "hook" or work with it well enough.



2. Brevity is the soul of wit. The subject matter is incredibly interesting and the book is well researched. Unfortunately the book is poorly written, so much so that I am going to have to work rather hard to finish it.



3. It could be argued that a generation from now the man whose name is synonymous with synonyms might very well be forgotten, thanks to computer-based websites that offer up what Peter Roget first published in 1852. Joshua Kendall offers a glimpse of a man who was a medical doctor by profession but made his lasting name through his "avocation"... a word not known in Roget's day. It is revealing but incomplete.
   
   Peter Mark Roget was descended from a lineage that seemed to produce more than its fair share of depressed family members. His mother never quite recovered from her husband's early death, his sister, jilted as a young love, suffered bouts of lifelong melancholy and his famous uncle, so set off by grief from his wife's death that he took his own, all contributed to Roget's own depression. Given the fact that Roget lived to be ninety is no small order, but "order" is the very word by which he lived. Shutting out the very emotions that might have given color to his life, Roget turned to listmaking. It is here we are forever grateful to him.
   
   Kendall's biography is rather dry and often flat but he does introduce a humorous chapter (and a profoundly historical one given the Napoleonic times) whereby a young Roget is hired to take the two teenage sons of a wealthy Englishman to Europe for a year or more and give them an education through travel. That the highly unemotional and humorless Dr. Roget could help the boys absorb anything about Paris "through the senses" would have been suspect, and consequently, as the author points out, the sons wrote back to their parents regarding the numbers of statues and pictures that were contained in The Louvre and the number of tower steps and organ pipes at Notre Dame... hardly worth a trip to the City of Light.
   
   What is missing in Kendall's book is any lengthy discourse as to how Roget finally put his thesaurus together, something so sorely lacking that it begs a question as to why it was not included. Everything seems to be in place as to why Roget wrote his thesaurus and had it published, but the process of compilation...that which might have made Roget spring to life... never appears. It's a serious enough omission not to recommend the book itself, but Kendall's look at the personal side of Peter Roget has just enough attraction to warrant a read. Given Roget's historical popularity and standing, I only wish there had been more.



4. This fine new biography, as the New York Times calls it in its 3/16/08 Book Review, has the distinction of being a page-turning, entertaining read but at the same time is full of concept and history. Delightful!



5. Per Mr. Kendall, "Roget quickly averted his eyes from the clock-case, preferring to look straight down at his papers on the podium." Wouldn't Roget have founded it easier to read from papers on a lectern, or even a table, or notes held in his hand? Bending over to read the papers he had placed on the podium seems a dreadful nuisance, unless of course he was blessed with visual acuity that allowed him to read, without craning his neck, documents arranged next to, or perhaps between, the soles of his shoes.

5 comments about The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary (P.S.).

1. This book was simply marvelous, if you are into the story of the origins of the Oxford English Dictionary, this is a book that captures the makings and includes the story of two gentlemen who's lives inevitably come together in bizzare but wonderful order of circumstances, if you Love words and their origins, you will be astounded by this book!



2. Perhaps no where is that more in evidence, than in this story, the story of a man, Dr. Minor, confined to an insane asylum, becoming one of the leading contributors to the Oxford English Dictionary.
   
   His story, the story of Dr. Murray, editor of the OED, how they got together and how the dictionary was compiled and edited makes for fascinating, marvelous reading. An intriguing, fascinating story well told, well written. Surprises, twists and concerns every few pages.
   
   The book does deserve criticism for its sometimes long and laborous detail about putting the dictionary together, but as a story, the story of the two men, Murray and Minor, it is a worthwhile and fascinating read.
   
   Winchester tells the story well, with an eye for detail, then and now, and with an empathetic if not sympathetic perspective for the humanity and the odd twists and turns involved. Good read. Buy it. Read it.



3. It is an understatement to say that the main character of this book had an unfortunate life. Driven by madness, this man lost his career as a surgeon after committing murder. The story could have ended there, but Dr. W.C. Minor ended up making a major contribution to the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Although the story of Minor is sad, in a way this contribution offers some redemption. A story about the creation of a dictionary could very easily become dull and that was my expectation, but the author, Simon Winchester, brought the subject to life through the characters he writes about. His descriptions of the actual process of constructing the dictionary were weak, but fortunately this was not the main point of the story and so did not detract from it. Winchester has a talent for bringing this type of story to life as he demonstrated in The Map That Changed The World, a story about geologist William Smith. I am confident enough now in Winchester's ability that I look forward to reading his other book about the OED, The Meaning Of Everything. Overall, I enjoyed The Professor And The Madman and would recommend it to those readers who have a fondness for the English language.



4. Interesting story about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, and one of its most prolific 'authors.'
   
   There's not a great deal of depth here, but this is a well written book that makes a great companion to the OED itself.



5. This is an absorbing story of, as the title states, the making of the Oxford English Dictionary. You'll gain an appreciation for dictionaries and the people who have labored to produce them for us. You'll also get a stranger-than-fiction depiction of the life of a man whose prolific contributions to the OED were essential to its creation. This is great non-fiction writing and would probably appeal to those who like the works of Erik Larsen.

5 comments about Jane Boleyn: The True Story of the Infamous Lady Rochford.

1. I enjoyed Ms. Fox's writing style. She does a good job of converting non-fictional material into a fictional-style telling of a story. However, the editing is HORRIBLE! By the time you get through wordy lines of text, poorly placed commas and interjected "by the way" thoughts, you've forgotten the intent of the sentence. Had the editor used more periods, the flow would have been easier to establish.



2. For readers familiar with the Tudor saga, this book is little more than a retelling. Author Fox tries oh-so-hard to convince us that she has new information and a fresh point of view, but she doesn't. I grew tired of reading passage after passage like this: "We don't know if Jane was a guest at the [INSERT EVENT]. But if she had been, she would have feasted on [INSERT FOOD] and rubbed elbows with [INSERT NAMES]." A big disappointment!



3. Jane Boleyn:
   The True Story of the Infamous Lady Rochford
   by Julia Fox
   
   Published by Ballantine Books
   
   A Review
   
   
   There may come a time - not in my life certainly, when those clever people at Microsoft or Google, will build a time machine. Then, with a few deft keystrokes, anyone with sufficient funds to stump up the registration, will be able to travel back in time and confirm or otherwise the popular conceptions of history.
   Until then, we must rely on Julia Fox and her ilk to wade through the sources and present us with their opinion of what happened where and when. She does so with admirable perspicacity
   
   Julia Fox has been very courageous in choosing a subject that has been written to death (3 million internet hits), in both fact and fiction. However, as everyone has access to the same primary sources, it is not everyone that can tease out the plausibility from the preconceived notions as well as Ms Fox does.
   
   This is Fox's first book and it is beautifully written. From the first chapter it is apparent that she is an experienced researcher and teacher. She also has an eye for beauty. Her descriptions of the Tudor ladies wardrobes, betray an author with an eye for style.
   
   This is the story of the trials and tribulations and ultimate undoing of Jane Boleyn (née Parker), Lady Rochford, wife of George Boleyn who was Anne Boleyn's brother. Fox attempts to buck the trend and redeem the oft disparaged viscountess. She elevates her from the `Great Whore' and `Wicked Wife' of other publications, to innocent victim in her own.
   
   Opinions vary whether the lady brought wretchedness upon herself through treachery, or was just a victim of circumstance. Fox suggests the latter, and I am persuaded.
   
   In the life and death lottery that was King Henry VIII's court, you win some and you lose some. Losing was rather final as in Jane's, her husband and sister-in-law's case, not to mention a few hundred more, but Fox punctuates these personal dilemmas with beautifully drawn descriptions of the pomp and ceremony that occupied the space between the misery.
   
   It would be easy to conclude that when questioned about her Queen's and husband's alleged offenses, she betrayed them. That would have been dumb; then and now. And Lady Rochford was anything but dumb. She was a lady-in-waiting to five of Henry's wives before she lost her head. That would have required some nifty footwork.
   
   There can be little doubt that she was implicated in the machinations of Catherin Howard, but is anyone seriously suggesting that she should have popped along to Henry, and whispered in his ear (perhaps shouting would have been more effective), that his Queen was dallying with half his court?
   
   It must be said however that a majority of the evidence for or against comes from loquacious foreign diplomats. They may or may not have been sympathetic to the English court, and perhaps sprayed their odium where it was most likely to stick.
   
   Julia Fox's book is a riveting read. Her points are well made and convincing. Her tone is `matter-of-fact `and never drifts from know intelligence.
   
   I strongly recommend this book for a first and second reading, and wait with enthusiasm for her next work.



4. The 26.95 plus tax I spent would have made a nice cocktail hour. I am an avid Tudor reader. And not once in all my years of reading have I had to stop 165 pages in. It is my opinion that, if so little is known about Lady Rochford, then this book should not have been written. I have plenty of books about Henry and his wives. If I had known I was purchasing " Tudor History for Dummies". I would have gone out drinking and done my part to save a tree. If you love and RESPECT Tudor history, don't read this book. I feel it insults our intelligence.



5. How could Julia Fox be given a book contract for "Jane Boleyn The True Story of the Infamous Lady Rochford"? Did an editor even read the claptrap the writer presents as "history"? Ms. Fox is probably the only student of Tudoriana to see Jane Boleyn as a "courageous spirit" and a "much-maligned figure whose life and reputation were taken from her".
   
   In a cowardly effort to save her own skin, Jane Boleyn gave Henry VIII the lies he needed to divest himself of wife number 2, Anne Boleyn. It meant death for her husband, George Boleyn, and sister-in-law, the Queen , but it didn't seem to bother Jane much. Blood relatives, like the Duke of Norfolk, the Boleyn sibling's uncle, also betrayed Anne and George, as did Anne's first love, Henry Percy. Betrayal was apparently the only way you could survive the snake pit that was Henry's court.
   
   I had expected an interesting juxtaposition between the saintly Thomas Moore, a man of principle, and his direct opposite, Jane Boleyn. The grooming of a traitor - now that would have been an interesting subject!
   
   But when I finished Julia Fox's book I knew as little about Jane Boleyn as I did when I started reading it. Ms. Fox doesn't know a whole heck of a lot more about her subject either - her book is filled with suppositions like "Jane was almost certainly an honored guest", " a few moments' reflection would have revealed to Jane", "Jane may even have helped Anne fasten (glittering stones) around her neck", "Perhaps Jane had witnessed", "Almost certainly, Jane was at her sister-in-law's side", "Jane was probably lodged", "It is most likely that Jane", "Perhaps Jane was wearing her favorite stocking", "That Jane was (a witness to Henry and Anne's wedding) is remotely possible but speculative", "for Jane, it was a chance to see", "it is unlikely that Jane actually saw", "Jane would have been gawped at too", "Anne, perhaps with Jane at her side", "Jane may well have", "We cannot be certain that Jane was with her sister-in-law, but it is likely that she was there", "this was likely to have been", "Jane probably did not travel", "We cannot be sure that Jane was present", "She may have remained", "She may have had a chance to have a word with"... and so on, and so on, ad nauseam.
   
   Julia Fox tells us four sure things about Jane Parker Boleyn: the woman was born, she married George Boleyn, served as lady-in-waiting to five of Henry's queens, and then she was beheaded.
   
   "Immaculate detective work"? I think not.

5 comments about Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England.

1. medieval europe was a very rough place to be a woman of royal blood,you have less right than a slave.



2. This is the fifth Allison Weir book I've listened to on audio (after her books Eleanor of Aquitaine, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, The Children of Henry VIII and The Life of Elizabeth I) plus I've read another (The War of the Roses), and this one is definitely the weakest of the bunch for reasons I'll set forth below. But even weak Allison Weir is enjoyable and full of detail you won't get elsewhere, so as long as you go into it knowing her bias, it's still a worthwhile read, and the audio version of this one is particularly good and unabridged to boot.
   
   As other reviewers have noted, the book is a bit revisionist in its view of Edward II's wife, Isabella, who was nicknamed (well after her death) the She-Wolf of France. While we can certainly be sympthetic to Isabella's plight in life, being married to a man who was a terrible and unpopular king and was most likely involved in a homosexual relationship right under her nose, Weir ends up identifying far too much with Isabella and making her sound like an all-around great gal, which she most certainly wasn't. It's also a bit misleading to call this a biography of Isabella. More like a history of Edward II with a little Isabella thrown in for good measure. That's not entirely Weir's fault, as there isn't that much extant on Isabella's life and, in any event, you can't understand Isabella without knowing what was happening in the lives of the men around her. Still -- the audio version takes up 18 discs, and a great deal of it is lists: where Isabella spent the night on various dates, what she wore, who was in attendence, all interspersed with the larger, historical happenings in the kingdom. It doesn't always mesh together, particularly since on audio you can't skim over the parts that are thrown in just so we don't forget that this is supposed to be a book on Isabella and not one about Edward II. Also, as other reviewers have noted, Weir spends an awful lot of time surmising that Edward II wasn't really murdered but escaped from England and spent the rest of his life following his deposition as a hermit in Italy. And that's not the only surmising Weir does. The book is best when it sticks to the facts and summarizes the various theories surrounding Edward and Isabella, rather than offering poorly supported conclusions. Weir's views about conspiracies having to do with Edward's alleged escape, about Isabella's supposed pregnancies during the time of her affair with Roger Mortimer, and similar matters, simply aren't convincing. But oh those details -- they're just wonderful and not ones you tend to find in other 14th century history books.
   
   Of the five Weir books I've listened to on audio, all but one (the one on Elizabeth) have been superbly narrated. Lisette Lecat reads Isabella in a languid, upper-crust voice that took some getting used to at first, but which I grew quickly to appreciate as it never overshadows the material. My only criticism, and it's a slight one, is that she deepens her voice somewhat unaturally when reading passages of letters written by men, and I would have preferred that she just read them in her own voice. Other than that though, the narration is close to perfect, with the added plus that Lecat can correctly pronounce the numerous French place names. In the Life of Elizabeth I, the narrator not only sounded like the witch in a children's book, she mispronounced Catherine de Medici's last name every time, which took me right out of the narrative. Lecat, on the other hand, is impeccable with both her timing and pronunciation and so this was a pleasure to listen to from a purely audio perspective.
   
   If you've never read much on this time period I wouldn't recommend this as a starting place (Thomas Costain's four book on the Plantagenets are a great place to begin), nor would I recommend it as the first Allison Weir book to read (start with the Six Wives of Henry VIII). But if you are a Weir fan or looking for an alternative and sympathetic point of view about Isabella, by all means jump right in, especially if you need something good and lengthy to listen to on a long drive or commute.



3. It's been almost ten years since I left university, and after years of a staple diet of chick-lit, one of my new year's resolutions has been to read more - um - informational books written on a grade level that is at least on par with junior high! When I first moved to the UK I spent a lot of time refreshing myself on the monarchy, especially during the middle ages and renaissance, and while I remember hearing of Isabella as the "she-wolf" who was also the line to so many other historical happenings (Richard II and the Princes in the Tower, etc), I didn't know anything about her. Neither, obviously, did many other people, and thus, this book was a great way to swim in medieval England for a while and really learn the personalities of people involved.
   
   I grew to like Isabella very much, and was impressed with her as a woman of her time. But my thoughts of Isabella aside, i have to say that this book was definitely on par with all of Alison Weir's previous works. It wasn't always as riveting, and sometimes I felt overwhelmed with information, and there were times when I just couldn't handle more than 15 pages at once, but overall it was an informative read and parts of it were very fast-paced.
   
   I do wish there had been more family trees and maps - I found myself going to wikipedia all the time, and was grateful that I have actually been to Leeds Castle, so I know it's not actually in Leeds, but on nearly the opposite end of England! I think Weir might forget sometimes that a huge percentage of her readers probably don't know how long it would take to go from Islip to Gloucester to Canterbury. So if you don't know a lot about the monarchy and relations, or the geography of the UK, it would probably be a good idea to have wikipedia very nearby!
   
   Definitely a recommended read for history buffs and students alike. Very glad I read it.



4. It's not uncommon for a biographer to develop some sympathy for their subject. In this case, though, one gets the feeling that Weir developed her sympathy before writing the book, and, in fact, set out to do her research to redeem Isabella's reputation, rather than simply to write an account of her life. Which is not intrinsically a bad thing. My problem is that Weir spends too much time disproving one historical theory of Isabella after another when, no matter your bias, the evidence is just not there for a conclusive determination either way. And yet, Weir routinely calls any conclusion but the one she has drawn "speculative." As far as I can tell, her conclusions are just as speculative!
   
   Having said that, Weir is to be commended for the thoroughness of her research. It must be incredibly difficult to come up with so much material about a woman of that time, even one as notorious as Queen Isabella. And Weir does an admirable job of taking the dry account books and other records and turning them into an actual narrative, to say nothing of making that narrative compelling at times.



5. I have read other books by this author and enjoyed them even though they are very historically written. The book started slow and never picked up. I had expected better from a book about Isabella.

5 comments about Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations.

1. The author gives absolutely no insight into Gertrude Bell and just recites the itinerary of one trip after another. Bell is made out to be an obsessive cartoon character running around the map like Bugs Bunny. After climbing the Matterhorn, she mysteriously decides to expensively explore the desert -- alone. I'd really like to know more about her. Someone suggested Desert Queen" by Janet Wallach.



2. I have come to enjoy memoir because it is full of feeling as well as information. But Georgina Howell's biography is so full of excerpts from the letters of Gertrude Bell--the subject of this excellent book--that we get a comprehensive sense of Bell's feelings. Howell makes it clear that Bell consistently understated the difficulties in her life. It is certainly a life to know about and to be celebrated.
   
   Gertrude Bell, who died in 1926, is known as the woman behind the creation of modern Iraq. She was born into a wealthy socially conservative family and displayed her brilliance and non-conformity early on. She attended Oxford and was the first woman to attain First Class Honors in History. She traveled to Persia, began her studies of Persian language and literature in Teheran, and fell in love with a man unacceptable to her family. She returned to England, where she continued her studies, adding Arabic to the mix. Never one to live life half way, she discovered the challenge of mountain climbing and conquered several peaks in the Alps, sometimes being the first woman to do so.
   
   Bell made three trips through the uncharted Arabian Peninsula, visiting archeological sites, carefully creating maps, and dropping in to visit sheiks in full evening wear. An important purpose of her travels was to learn about the alliances and customs of the numerous tribes. This knowledge was applied when she began working with the British government to build a unified Arabic nation after the defeat of the Germans and their allies the Turks in WWI.
   
   The unification was a struggle. Howell writes: "The army wins the territory, and the administration takes over; but in Mesopotamia the struggle to install conditions conducive to peace and eventual prosperity would prove as daunting as the battlefront itself...Arabs spoke a common language but were not a common people..." This struggle, which took place almost 100 years ago, has many similarities with the Iraq struggle today. Bell's later life was so intertwined with the founding of Iraq that the details of the political struggle cannot be left out.
   
   Howell does a splendid job of bringing the astonishing Gertrude Bell to life. Her descriptions of the often bleak landscape, the oases of sheikdoms, and the contrast of desert life with Bell's luxurious wardrobe, living style and traveling entourage enliven the biography. Fortunately for us, Bell's family and friends saved her detailed letters. Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations illuminates the many centuries-old causes of the current struggle in the Middle East.
   
   by Judith Helburn
   for Story Circle Book Reviews
   reviewing books by, for, and about women



3. Well written---engaging story. Historically comprehensive. Provides valuable insight into historical background of current Iraq conflict.



4. Gertrude Bell was an amazing woman. This book is ponderous. The style is flat, the author's point of view uncritical. It reads like a boring history book. If she had done more research instead of just quoting letters and anecdotes from Gertrude's letters she could have fleshed Gertrude out and made her 3 dimensional. There are other authors that have done justice to Gertrude and made her come alive for us to admire.
   This book leaves you feeling like you know alot of facts about Gertrude but nothing about the woman she was.



5. This is a fantastically researched biographical work. It is very in-depth and the research is extremely scholarly. However, my only complaint with this work is that in several places in the book, the timeline is rather fuzzy. I understand that the author is trying to explain certain points of Gertrude's life with more clarity, but it does make it a little difficult to understand when certain things are happening and within what context, i.e. her relationships with men as well as her experiences mountain climbing. The book regains its momentum when discussing the situation in the Middle East. It would have been interesting to see some discussion of the politics of modern day Iraq, as well as connections to British and American policies currently. However, it was a very scholarly work which was also a pleasure to read.