Lesley Hazleton, a British-born Jewish psychologist, journalist and author, whose curiosity about faith and religion led her to write biographies of Muhammad, Mary and Jezebel, died on April 29 at her home, a houseboat in Seattle. She was 78.

She moved to Jerusalem in 1966, at age 20, and lived there through two wars and one peace treaty, working as a journalist for The Jerusalem Post and as a stringer for Time magazine. She left Israel for New York in 1979, wrote the column “Hers” for The New York Times, and embarked on a career as a car columnist for Lear’s magazine and later for The Detroit Free Press. She also had a pilot’s license, and wrote a blog, “Accidental Theologist,” about faith and religion.

Life is a journey, she believed. “It’s not how long I live that matters,” should would say. “It’s how I live. And I intend to do it well, to the end.” And she did.