Page 8 - Life of Gertrude Bell

X INTRODUCTION
politics of Arabia and the post-war settlement in Traq, that there
is a significant gap in the existing record of her life, but again the
official documents needed to amplify her own accounts of these
matters were not available to earlier writers. On the other hand,
unofficial and semi-official documents were available and might
have been used to give balance and contrast to a story which
suffers from a lack of that most charming of human qualities,
the ability to be wrong. I refer particularly to the letters to Sir
Valentine Chirol and Colonel Frank Balfour, now in the University
Library of Durham, and the papers of Sir Arnold Wilson in the
British Museum, some of which have been used by Sir Arnold’s
own biographer.
The need for a biography which relies on testimony other than
that contained in Gertrude’s own letters has long been evident.
I have necessarily started where others have started, at the
beginning, and I must hope that readers already familiar with the
earlier biographies, and with the Lady Bell selected Letters and
Earlier Letters (edited by Lady Richmond), will forgive the
repetition. Where I have quoted extensively from the correspon­
dence I have tried to use the unpublished letters as much as
possible, or those from which Miss Burgoyne chose so well,
though inevitably with brevity.
Perhaps the most difficult decision facing anyone who tries to
write about Gertrude Bell is whether or not to use footnotes.
Almost every moment of her life is attested and affirmed by a
document of one sort or another and to enumerate them all
would be to turn the work into something resembling an exercise
in higher mathematics. I have therefore relied on extensive notes
to chapters at the end of the book, thus I hope satisfying those
with a craving for archival information without bothering the
reader who prefers an unbroken narrative.
I have deliberately refrained from seeking the sanction or
approval of the Bell family in writing this work. I did not expect
to find any very remarkable skeletons in the cupboard, neither
did I find any. But formal approval, at whatever remove of time,
is always slightly inhibiting. All the same I have needed help from
several branches of the family and I am especially indebted to
Mrs Pauline Dower, Gertrude’s niece, and to the Hon. Mrs
Sylvia Henley, a cousin on the Stanley side, who are closer than
anyone to the facts about the life of my subject. I would like to
express my thanks also to the present Lady Bell for loaning me a

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