Dimensions
162 x 241 x 38mm
Hester Stanhope was a legend in her own time. As a society beauty she played hostess for her uncle‚ William Pitt the Younger‚ who once told her: 'If you were a man‚ Hester‚ I would send you to the continent with 60‚000 men‚ and give you carte blanche'. The Egyptian ruler Mehmet Ali would later claim that she caused him 'more trouble than all the insurgent people in Syria or Palestine'‚ and subsequent generations remained captivated by her unrepentant desire to live an extraordinary life. Picasso declared her 'the very model of the free woman' and Virginia Woolf was fascinated by the woman who became the greatest female traveller of her day‚ roaming the Levant dressed as a Turkish lord.
Yet for all her courage‚ the woman whom the Bedouin called "Queen of the East" became a cautionary tale for young women with wayward tendencies. Biographers and historians have largely followed the lead of the Victorians who castigated Hester's spectacularly romantic life‚ painting her as a quintessential English eccentric - intriguing‚ but easily dismissed. The real story of her life and loves has remained largely untold. Hester did more than pave the way for other intrepid women travellers; she played a significant role in the politics of the Middle East during one of its most turbulent eras. This captivating‚ authoritative biography reinterprets the life of this extraordinary woman‚ whose aspirations led her straight to the heart of the shadowy race for influence between the great powers of the 19th century - a world of shifting alliances‚ double agents‚ romance‚ intrigue and murder.
The result is a compelling portrait of a woman driven by her obsessions‚ a self-proclaimed mystic consumed by empire-building who ran her own spy ring while tending her roses.
