In the spring of 1926, Vita Sackville-West traveled on a long detour through Egypt, India, and Iraq, where she spent several days in Baghdad at the home of the esteemed Oriental traveler and Arabist Gertrude Bell, before heading to Persia to visit her husband, who was serving as secretary at the British legation in Tehran. She loved adventure. Even when her motorcade was pursued by mounted bandits in Kurdistan on the way to Tehran, she remained unfazed. In Tehran, she enjoyed luxury and took a liking to partridges, melons, pomegranate jam, and Shiraz wine. She did not hold back in her criticism of the pomp of diplomatic life and was not dazzled by the treasures of the Persian court or the coronation of Shah Reza Khan Pahlavi: amateur theater.