This publication, which coincides with the centenary of T.E.Lawrence's birth, reviews most of the literature about Lawrence including 30 biographies and several television documentaries, plays and films. It aims to put his life into new perspective for the general reader while providing the expert with a reference to documentary evidence both new and old. The author reveals what he considers to be instances of distortion, inconsistency, mistaken deduction and axe-grinding on the part of those who have created images of Lawrence. He concludes that Lawrence, who has been portrayed as many things from a hero and charismatic leader to a fraud and devious self-publicist, was a brilliant polymath who had a capacity to keep two contradictory ideas in his mind at once and therefore to live life beyond narrow bounds. This book gathers together 80 Lawrence photographs, many of which have not been reproduced before.
