Gertrude Bell — The Intrepid Explorer

And she was so much more. Ever since I went to watch The English Patient at the cinema (where films should be seen), I was so angry and have wanted to write an article about Gertrude Bell ever since. It was the following exchange at the start of the film that set me off: First officer: “But can we get through those mountains?” Second officer: “The Bell maps show a way.” First officer: “Let’s hope he was right.” “He”? The ‘Bell maps’ were the only maps at the time that would show a way through the desert — but ‘Bell’ was a woman, not a ‘he’, she had created the maps for the Royal Geographic Society, and Lord Cromer, the former British Council General to Egypt, said of her in 1915: <a href="https://knudseninge.medium.com/gertrude-bell-the-intrepid-explorer-b9eabcd0fb50">Website</a>