A Leap of Faith - Queen Noor

Born into a distinguished Arab-American family and raised amid privilege, Lisa Halaby was in the first co-educational freshman class at Princeton, graduating in 1974 with a degree in architecture and urban planning. Following graduation, 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.

Sharing a personal perspective on the past three decades of world history, Leap of Faith highlights Queen Noor's views on Islam and the West; the challenges of rearing her family; her work as Queen and humanitarian activist; and her struggles to protect her husband as he slipped into the illness that would kill him in 1999.

Leap of Faith is refreshingly candid and clear-eyed, a true love story set against the turbulent politics of the last thirty years.

Queen Noor was born in the USA, living in New York, California and Washington before going to university at Princeton, where she joined the first freshman class to accept women. She majored in architecture and urban planning. After graduating she worked in Australia, Iran and Jordan before meeting King Hussein. With sons educated in England (one trained as a soldier at Sandhurst), Queen Noor now divides her time between the UK, Jordan and New York.