Colonel Lawrence, The Man Behind the Legend

An impressive and convincing portrait as well as an extremely exciting narrative. Lawrence is here represented as a Pilgrim of Eternity, a man of universal capabilities, who, when in action, cannot escape general meditation, and when in retreat has to fight the thirst for action. His post-war seclusion is very simply explained: he had done a tremendous job under tremendous strain, had conducted with great genius the Desert War, had seen to it that our promises to the Arabs were implemented as fully as they could be, and needed a rest. There was no rest possible at Oxford where he tried a resident Fellowship of All Souls, and was deluged with callers. There would have been nothing but irritation in being a serving subordinate officer passing on orders in which probably he would not believe. He had to be in supreme command or at the bottom, where orders are received and none transmitted, so a private he became.