Local Author Series – Gail Rose Thompson

Note: Held in Meeting Room B of the Alachua Library Headquarters Branch

Gail Rose Thompson will present her nonfiction Iran from Crown to Turban, relating tales of life in Iran during the time of the Pahlavi Crown, the revolution and post-revolutionary times. Her images of the country are far different from what the press tells us. She lived there in the 1970s, visited two years ago, and is frequently in contact with friends living there now. Her entertaining stories depict a country of which we are misinformed.

Gail Rose Thompson

Gail grew up in Ontario, Canada, where as a young girl she became involved in riding and training horses. She graduated from Hamilton Teachers College and taught school for several years before she traveled to Iran, where she worked for the Imperial Court of Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlavi during the “Golden Years” of the 1970s. While there, she witnessed the country’s development as the leading power in the Middle East. Upon her arrival in Richmond, Virginia from Iran, she opened a riding school which, over the next forty years, developed into a renowned training facility for Hunter/Jumper horses and riders. She returned to Iran in the fall of 2017, where she met up with old friends and spent time touring and learning about the life in the Islamic Republic of Iran as it is now. She currently lives in Ocala, Florida. Her memoir All the Shah’s Horses has been well received.

Iran From Crown To Turbans

People are curious about how life in Iran today, under the Islamic republic, differs from life as it was during the reign of Shah Mohamad Reza Pahlavi. Gail Rose Thompson, who lived there in the 1970s and worked for the imperial court as the Shah’s horse trainer, has many tales about life during that time and also about the way of life in the country post-revolution. She visited Iran in 2017 after an absence of forty years, the first ex-employee of the Shah to return. She paints a picture of a beautiful historic country that dates from the fourth millennium BCE, when the Persian Empire was the most powerful kingdom in the ancient world. Iranians are proud of their heritage and are polite, hospitable, and extremely family-oriented. Iran from Crown to Turbans is a fascinating book of stories that will enlighten the reader about a country that has been misrepresented.