Lisa Halaby, a shy American girl who once wore 'coke-bottle-thick'
glasses, became King Hussein of Jordan's fourth wife in 1978. A
Princeton graduate in Architecture and Urban Planning, she was
given the name 'Noor' meaning 'light'. Queen Noor adopted the
Muslim faith and learned Arabic but initially found life in the
marble lined palace of Hashimya difficult. Hussein kept a
short-wave radio in the bedroom and was in constant demand. Special
branch officers and an entourage made privacy impossible. There
were clashes with servants over household changes and she became an
instant stepmother to the children of Queen Dina, Princess Muna and
Queen Alia. Despite five pregnancies in six years, she went on to
carve out a niche for herself on the world stage. State visits to
Crowned Heads and Presidents were interspersed with making speeches
at American universities. At home she threw herself into
educational and cultural projects and struggled with her unwieldy
family. But this is less an autobiography, more a hagiography of a
well loved King who survived countless death threats and always
wore a gun. The bulk of the book covers the history of Jordan from
biblical times, tracking it through demographic, economic and
political turmoil up to the present. Noor charts her husband's
dogged attempts to broker peace in the Middle East and records
Jordan's sufferings during and after the Gulf War. Strenuously
defending his efforts, she points out that Hussein was often
unfairly portrayed as both a lackey of the West and an Arab
hard-liner. Inevitably, the troubles of the region are documented
from the viewpoint of someone who grew to resent Arabs being cast
in the role of aggressors. Hussein would die tragically early at
62, not from an assassin's bullet but from lymph cancer. The book
will disappont those hoping for royal revelations and intimate
detail. Nevertheless it'sa unique insider view of privilege,
politics and power based on Noor's daily journal. Nicely
illustrated with colour photographs of informal family occasions
and state visits. (Kirkus UK)
Born into a distinguished Arab-American family, Lisa Halaby was a
strongly independent young woman. After studying architecture at
Princeton, her work on projects in the Middle East gave her a
profound understanding both of the links between the environment
and social problems, and also of the tumultuous history of the Arab
nations. Then, in 1974, her life took a very different turn, when
her father introduced her to the world's most eligible bachelor,
King Hussein of Jordan. After a whirlwind romance, she became Noor
Al Hussein, Queen of Jordan. With eloquence and honesty, Queen Noor
speaks of the obstacles she faced as a young bride and of her
successful struggle to create a role for herself as a humanitarian
activist. She tells of her heartbreaking miscarriage and the births
of her four children, along with her continuing support for King
Hussein's campaign to bring peace to the Arab nations. But most of
all this is a love story - an honest and engaging portrait of a
truly remarkable woman and the man she married.
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