Seven Pillars of Wisdom

“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did.”

Thomas Edward Lawrence ‘of Arabia’ is perhaps one of the most documented, yet least understood figures of the First World War. A man swallowed up by his own legend, he made a supreme effort to document his experiences in the Arabian desert, and to immortalise those who aided in building his extraordinary reputation.

Born to a Scotch-Irish family in Wales, Lawrence studied history in Oxford, going on to become an archaeologist working in Ottoman Syria. This was to form the basis for his military career. After enlisting in the British Army in 1914, Lawrence became involved in attempts to aid the Arab Revolt, operating from Jordan to coordinate attacks on Damascus and Aqaba. The general idea was that this would undermine Ottoman efforts against Britain, forcing them to fight a war on two fronts.

Part travelogue, part autobiography, and part adventure novel, this book details Lawrence’s experiences as a soldier, intelligence officer, liaison, and even a messianic figure. Within can be seen Lawrence’s transition from a bright-eyed idealist, to a hardened veteran, to a deeply disappointed man, whose every effort was betrayed by the intricacies of realpolitik. 

Lawrence has been portrayed in extraordinary ways, and yet few have come close to capturing the peculiar series of contradictions that made up the man himself. We have seen him in film, on television, and even in computer games. No image of him, even in his own words, is entirely reliable, but we can justly enjoy a glimpse at a larger-than-life figure. Any reader who enjoys daredevil adventure, underpinned by a quiet fury at colonialism and imperialism, will love this book just as much as I do.