Persian Pictures

Gertrude Bell's fascinating account of a lifetime of travel and a lifelong enchantment of Persia. 'Are we the same, I wonder, when all our surroundings, association, acquaintances are changed? I conclude that it is not the person who danced with you at Mansfield St who writes to you today from Persia. Yet there are dregs, English sediment at the bottom of my sherbet, and perhaps they flavour it more than I think. I write to you of Persia: I am not me, that is my only excuse. I am merely pouring out for you some of what I have received in the last two months.' When Gertrude Bell's uncle was appointed Minister in Tehran in 1891, she declared that the great ambition of her life was to visit Persia. Several months later, she did. And so began a lifetime of travel and a lifelong enchantment with what she saw as the romance of the East, which evolved into a deep understanding of its cultures and people. This vivid and impressionistic series of sketches, her first foray into writing, is an evocative meditation that moves between Persia's heroic past and its long decline; the public face of Tehran and the otherworldly 'secret, mysterious life of the East', the lives of its women, its lush, enclosed gardens; from the bustling cities to the lonely wastelands of Khorasan.

Gertrude Bell CBE (1868-1926) - scholar, linguist, archaeologist, traveller and 'orientalist' - was a remarkable woman in male-dominated Edwardian society. She shunned convention by eschewing marriage and family for an academic career and the extensive travelling that would lead to her major role in Middle Eastern diplomacy. But her private life was marred by the tragedy, vulnerability and frustration that were key to her quest both for a British-dominated Middle East and relief from the torture of her romantic failures. Through her vivid writings, she brought the Arab world alive for countless people as she travelled to some of the region's most inhospitable places.

Preface 1. An Eastern City 2. The Tower of Silence 3. In Praise of Gardens 4. The King of Merchants 5. The Imam Hussein 6. The Shadow of Death 7. Dwellers in Tents 8. Three Noble Ladies 9. The Treasure of the King 10. Sheikh Hassan 11. A Persian Host 12. A Stage and a Half 13. A Bridle- Path 14. Two Palaces 15. The Month of Fasting 16. Requiescant in Pace 17. The City of King Prusias 18. Shops and Shopkeepers 19. A Murray of the First Century 20. Travelling Companions