The extraordinary Gertrude Bell, Freya Stark, Rosetta Forbes and Mary Curzon are the best known protagonists in this history and biography of the Western women who lived, worked and travelled in Arabia in the first half of the twentieth century. Largely ignored by historians, they were sometimes flamboyant and unconventional, sometimes conservative and conformist - and all of them wanted to be a part of British imperial life. Some were prepared to 'play the game', others, like the American missionaries whose stories are told here, were not and were regarded as difficult and dangerous. "Playing the Game" explores how they negotiated power and position in the Empire. It reveals how conventional female roles were defined by the masculine culture of imperial authority and how while at times these women actively colluded with this, at others they successfully subverted the stereotypes.

In these 5000 pages Archive Editions presents a key selection of facsimile original British government documents detailing the history and development of Bahrain between 1820 and 1960. The set includes a map box containing 12 maps dated 1828-1955 including three sheets of the table of the Ruling Al Khalifah ('Utbi) family of Bahrain. These British records are of particular interest because the British were in the unique position of being at the heart of government in the Gulf states. They administered Bahrain's foreign and defence affairs through treaty relations from as early as 1820 and despite a convention acknowledging the independence of Bahrain agreed in 1913, right up to the British withdrawal in 1971.