A Leap of Faith

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)