Gertrude Bell died alone in her bed in Baghdad in July 1926. When her maid went to wake her, she found a bottle of sleeping pills on the bedside table. Bell was 57 years old and didn't have much hope for the future, even though she had just inaugurated the Baghdad Archaeological Museum. At that moment, perhaps she felt that she had been pushed aside by history, out of place, and had lost some of her power. She had been a desert queen without a crown, but she was no longer taken very seriously. "If I had to define her somehow, I would describe her as an English Bedouin. Bedouins are very conservative people who seek freedom and are always on the move," says Olivier Guez (Strasbourg, 1974). The French journalist and writer is the author of the book Mesopotamia (Tusquets), delves into the life of this wealthy British woman, adventurer, archaeologist, polyglot, climber, and spy who, always acting in the interests of the British Empire, sought to shape and define the future of a mythical and turbulent region.