ABSTRACT
Apart from my personal and often poignant memories of Kuwait, twenty, thirty and forty years ago, the place and its people are kept fresh in my mind, even when I am in England, because V. lives there. Now seventy-four, she has been resident there for forty-two years. The other English residents of longest standing have been there only seventeen years, and not many stay for as long as that. In Kuwait V. has become a legend. She moves freely in Arab society, mixing with high and low, received with affection in many houses which are not visited by other Europeans. Her regard for the people is evident in everything she does, and this has been her passport into the homes and the hearts of her Kuwaiti friends.
