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Lawrence: The Uncrowned King of Arabia
'The best life of Lawrence yet published' - The Express Lawrence was a brilliant propagandist, rhetorician and manipulator, who deliberately turned his life into a conundrum. But who was the real man behind the masks? Lawrence began the GreatWar as a map-clerk and ended it as one of the greatest military heroes of the 20th century. He altered the face of the Middle East, helped to lead the Arabs to freedom and formulated modern guerilla warfare. Yet he refused any honours and spent therest of his life in near obscurity. Desert explorer and Arabist, Michael Asher, set out to solve this riddle and discovers a hero whose greatness owed as much to his weaknesses as to his strengths.
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First published October 1, 1998
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About the author
Michael Asher
56 books63 followersMichael Asher is an author, historian, deep ecologist, and notable desert explorer who has covered more than 30,000 miles on foot and camel. He spent three years living with a traditional nomadic tribe in Sudan.
Michael Asher was born in Stamford, Lincolnshire, in 1953, and attended Stamford School. At 18 he enlisted in the 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment, and saw active service in Northern Ireland during The Troubles there in the 1970s.
He studied English Language & Linguistics at the University of Leeds. at the same time serving in B Squadron, 23rd SAS Regiment. He also studied at Carnegie College, Leeds, where he qualified as a teacher of physical education and English.
In 1978-9, he worked for the RUC Special Patrol Group anti-terrorist patrols, but left after less than a year. He took a job as a volunteer English teacher in the Sudan in 1979.
The author of twenty-one published books, and presenter/director of six TV documentaries, Asher has lived in Africa for much of his life, and speaks Arabic and Swahili. He is married to Arabist and photographer Mariantonietta Peru, with whom he has a son and a daughter, Burton and Jade. He currently lives in Nairobi, Kenya.
Michael Asher was born in Stamford, Lincolnshire, in 1953, and attended Stamford School. At 18 he enlisted in the 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment, and saw active service in Northern Ireland during The Troubles there in the 1970s.
He studied English Language & Linguistics at the University of Leeds. at the same time serving in B Squadron, 23rd SAS Regiment. He also studied at Carnegie College, Leeds, where he qualified as a teacher of physical education and English.
In 1978-9, he worked for the RUC Special Patrol Group anti-terrorist patrols, but left after less than a year. He took a job as a volunteer English teacher in the Sudan in 1979.
The author of twenty-one published books, and presenter/director of six TV documentaries, Asher has lived in Africa for much of his life, and speaks Arabic and Swahili. He is married to Arabist and photographer Mariantonietta Peru, with whom he has a son and a daughter, Burton and Jade. He currently lives in Nairobi, Kenya.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
September 18, 2020
I came to Lawrence via Colin Wilson’s ‘The Outsider’, T.E.L. being the outsider par excellence. I had 2 biographies to choose from. Very fortunately for me I chose Michael Asher’s. What a remarkable book this is. I wonder how he felt after finishing it. Having lived with Lawrence now for however many days I feel the need to sit quietly in a dark room, preferably containing a psychiatrist’s couch. And I was the mere reader!
Part adventure story, part psychological analysis and part travelogue, this is a book/box of delights. The author seems to have captured the uniqueness of Lawrence, some achievement, as the little man rarely kept still. I pictured Lawrence as a geni who wouldn’t go back into his bottle.
His parentage is interesting, his relationship with his mother crucially so. A remarkable woman it seems, but with much to answer for.
An outsider and a tortured soul throughout his life, he was fired by a masochistic energy which drove him, both physically and mentally, to heights of achievement most of us could only dream/have nightmares about. It would fire him into the presence of potentates and peasants and he would manipulate them alike to his will. His momentary bask of glory had to be paid for by guilt assuaging pain and humiliation.
No wonder so much is written about this multifaceted creature!
Part adventure story, part psychological analysis and part travelogue, this is a book/box of delights. The author seems to have captured the uniqueness of Lawrence, some achievement, as the little man rarely kept still. I pictured Lawrence as a geni who wouldn’t go back into his bottle.
His parentage is interesting, his relationship with his mother crucially so. A remarkable woman it seems, but with much to answer for.
An outsider and a tortured soul throughout his life, he was fired by a masochistic energy which drove him, both physically and mentally, to heights of achievement most of us could only dream/have nightmares about. It would fire him into the presence of potentates and peasants and he would manipulate them alike to his will. His momentary bask of glory had to be paid for by guilt assuaging pain and humiliation.
No wonder so much is written about this multifaceted creature!
March 2, 2008
Michael Asher's approach to Lawrence of Arabia is a bit different from most other biographers'. Rather than taking Lawrence's autobiography, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, as a starting point and finding additional material to shed light on Lawrence's own words, Asher starts from the premise that Lawrence, while unmistakeably heroic, was prone to embellishment, and sets out to detail where Lawrence's account of his life deviates from known facts and other accounts (including letters Lawrence himself wrote before writing his autobiography). But it isn't just a matter of comparing documents. An Arabist and adventurer himself, Asher set out to Arabia to retrace Lawrence's steps, visiting the places Lawrence described in his book and talking to descendants of the Bedu with whom Lawrence wrested Arab rule back from the Ottoman Turks. The resulting biography is not so much a debunking of the myth of Lawrence of Arabia (Asher clearly continues to admire his subject, warts and all) as a rewriting of it. It's pretty interesting stuff, although David Lean probably wouldn't approve.
Lawrence: The Uncrowned King of Arabia is a solid piece of research. Asher's knowledge of the facts of Lawrence's life, the Great Arab Revolt and the different Bedu tribes with whom Lawrence dealt during World War I is impressive. At times, he drops rather too many names, but since it's all in the interests of historical veracity, that's all right. His own experiences in Arabia, albeit intrusive, make for interesting reading. Lawrence himself emerges as an absolutely fascinating figure -- an aloof, mercurial and repressed masochist with a penchant for noble savages and beautiful young boys (preferably rolled into one). The fact that he felt a compulsive need to rewrite his own history (and not always to make himself seem better or more dignified) only serves to make him more interesting. Asher clearly feels so, too, and that's what makes this biography so good -- it's honest and incisive, but respectful. Lawrence himself would have approved, I think.
Lawrence: The Uncrowned King of Arabia is a solid piece of research. Asher's knowledge of the facts of Lawrence's life, the Great Arab Revolt and the different Bedu tribes with whom Lawrence dealt during World War I is impressive. At times, he drops rather too many names, but since it's all in the interests of historical veracity, that's all right. His own experiences in Arabia, albeit intrusive, make for interesting reading. Lawrence himself emerges as an absolutely fascinating figure -- an aloof, mercurial and repressed masochist with a penchant for noble savages and beautiful young boys (preferably rolled into one). The fact that he felt a compulsive need to rewrite his own history (and not always to make himself seem better or more dignified) only serves to make him more interesting. Asher clearly feels so, too, and that's what makes this biography so good -- it's honest and incisive, but respectful. Lawrence himself would have approved, I think.
March 8, 2014
This is not your typical biography of a legendary figure. Part pilgrimage, part travelogue, part mythological debunking, part psychological unveiling - it's all here in this book. T.E. Lawrence, known to posterity as Lawrence of Arabia, was an...interesting figure, to say the least, and Asher captures him here in all his strange, curious, contradictory glory.
I'm not sure I've ever read a biography that probed so deeply into a subject's psyche before (although the accuracy of that probing I'll leave to more qualified minds than mine), and I certainly don't think I've ever read a biography of such a strange individual. A psychiatrist would have had a field day with Lawrence - masochism, reverse-exhibitionism, fantasies of self-degradation, flagellation, self-loathing, mother issues, it's all here. And that's not mentioning a somewhat complicated relationship with the notion of truth which surely must have made the task of writing his biography a challenge.
Could the Arab Revolt have succeeded without Lawrence? Perhaps. Who is to know? Lawrence himself certainly realised that it was only during those war years that he found his own Lawrence-shaped niche, a role that was perfect for him. As Asher states, "he had been the perfect man in the right place at the right time", and his name was made. One wonders how much of Lawrence's post-war difficulty lay in his own realisation that there was no Lawrence, that he was no more T.E. Lawrence than he was Lawrence of Arabia, that he had no real conception of his own identity. Lawrence was a chameleon throughout his life, changing and adapting his own self to fit his surroundings, and he succeeded in this beyond all measure during the Arab Revolt.
I'm not sure I've ever read a biography that probed so deeply into a subject's psyche before (although the accuracy of that probing I'll leave to more qualified minds than mine), and I certainly don't think I've ever read a biography of such a strange individual. A psychiatrist would have had a field day with Lawrence - masochism, reverse-exhibitionism, fantasies of self-degradation, flagellation, self-loathing, mother issues, it's all here. And that's not mentioning a somewhat complicated relationship with the notion of truth which surely must have made the task of writing his biography a challenge.
Could the Arab Revolt have succeeded without Lawrence? Perhaps. Who is to know? Lawrence himself certainly realised that it was only during those war years that he found his own Lawrence-shaped niche, a role that was perfect for him. As Asher states, "he had been the perfect man in the right place at the right time", and his name was made. One wonders how much of Lawrence's post-war difficulty lay in his own realisation that there was no Lawrence, that he was no more T.E. Lawrence than he was Lawrence of Arabia, that he had no real conception of his own identity. Lawrence was a chameleon throughout his life, changing and adapting his own self to fit his surroundings, and he succeeded in this beyond all measure during the Arab Revolt.
December 22, 2009
This book, first published in 1998, has been one of the best accounts I have read to date on 'Lawrence of Arabia'. For anyone looking for an easy to read but in-depth account of this amazing man then I think this book would be the one to read.
In 380 pages Michael Asher takes you along on a journey of discovery with T.E. Lawrence and what a journey it is. The author re-traces many of Lawrence’s desert journeys and presents the reader with a book that is part history, part travelogue and all drama!
This book attempts to put to rest many of the myths and part-truths surrounding the career of T.E. Lawrence and does it well without going over-board. This book presents the man, warts and all and you come away from the book still amazed at what this man managed to accomplish in the desert during the Great War.
The book offers many black & white photographs but also a number of nice colour photographs taken by the author whilst re-tracing Lawrence’s journeys. This is a good book and well worth the time to pick up and read.
In 380 pages Michael Asher takes you along on a journey of discovery with T.E. Lawrence and what a journey it is. The author re-traces many of Lawrence’s desert journeys and presents the reader with a book that is part history, part travelogue and all drama!
This book attempts to put to rest many of the myths and part-truths surrounding the career of T.E. Lawrence and does it well without going over-board. This book presents the man, warts and all and you come away from the book still amazed at what this man managed to accomplish in the desert during the Great War.
The book offers many black & white photographs but also a number of nice colour photographs taken by the author whilst re-tracing Lawrence’s journeys. This is a good book and well worth the time to pick up and read.
March 27, 2008
This is a very controversial bio of Lawrence. I traded some email with Michael Asher, the author, and he told me had recieved death threats since its publication.
Asher asserts that Lawrence was homosexual (long debated) and that at least two of his exploits of fame (the crossing of Sinai in 48 hours and his capture and rape at the hands of the Turks) never happened at all. Asher charges that Lawrence was a shameless self-promoter that came to despise the role he had created for himself.
At the same time, Asher recognizes that Lawrence was a brilliant tactician and may very well be the father of modern guerrilla warfare. His role in the Arab uprising is unquestioned and his influence in the Middle East remains.
Incidentally, Asher also recommended the film classic "Lawrence of Arabia" as an account of the war in the Arabia and as Lawrence's mythological bio.
Asher asserts that Lawrence was homosexual (long debated) and that at least two of his exploits of fame (the crossing of Sinai in 48 hours and his capture and rape at the hands of the Turks) never happened at all. Asher charges that Lawrence was a shameless self-promoter that came to despise the role he had created for himself.
At the same time, Asher recognizes that Lawrence was a brilliant tactician and may very well be the father of modern guerrilla warfare. His role in the Arab uprising is unquestioned and his influence in the Middle East remains.
Incidentally, Asher also recommended the film classic "Lawrence of Arabia" as an account of the war in the Arabia and as Lawrence's mythological bio.
July 14, 2018
I thought I was going to read a biography of one of the more colourful characters of the early 20th Century. Instead this is a synopsis of Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom top and tailed with short accounts of Lawrence's life pre and post war and a great many unnecessary and unwanted anecdotes about the author, his expertise at camel riding and how parts of Syria that were desert in 1917 have now got car parks. When a biographer is unable to keep out of a biography, perhaps he or she should write their own accounts of their adventures and experiences rather than use those of the more talented. Had the book been called "in the footsteps of Lawrence" it could have been avoided.
April 19, 2013
I've read many biographies of Lawrence, but this one stands out in my mind as the best overall. Asher indulges neither in hagiography nor in wild speculation, but presents a psychological portrait of his subject that is credible and ultimately convincing.
November 3, 2025
Whether or not you truly want to delve into the life of Lawrence of Arabia and this particular biography depends, I think, on whether you want to preserve the dynamic image of him as portrayed in the movie Lawrence of Arabia by David Lean or want to dig deeper into the eccentric world of the real T.E. Lawrence.
I myself am no Lawrence scholar and have something akin to a passing interest in him as a sort of mythological figure like Wyatt Earp or Daniel Boone. This particular book was picked up randomly at a library book sale for a quarter to supplement my knowledge of T.E. Lawrence beyond the movie and to help me prepare to read his memoir Seven Pillars of Wisdom, which I've heard is quite literary and even difficult without a bit of background on Lawrence and the Arab revolt.
As a writer and a scholar, Asher is reasonably capable and has adequate credentials to tell his tale. What has been mentioned in other reviews and which I'll echo here is that he unfortunately wants to interrupt the flow of Lawrence's biography by interjecting his first-person accounts of his travels around the same areas Lawrence traveled. Although this story-telling technique doesn't ruin the book, it slows down the pace and adds little if anything the reader needs or wants to know. To me, it serves as an annoying distraction. It's typical also for Asher to want to pick apart the mind of T.E. Lawrence and give some debatable theories about the motives behind Lawrence's actions. Certainly, Asher appears to do his homework and his assumptions about Lawrence seem well supported, but what is hard to take is the unequivocal nature of Asher's assertions. He himself never doubts his assumptions.
However, if the reader can accept that Asher's views are valid, then the reader should also be prepared to discover that Lawrence was more than a little eccentric, something bound to undermine the beautiful myth around the man. Aside from the details given about Lawrence's truly weird need for self-debasement in the form of flagellation as well as his decision to spend his adult life after Arabia as an enlisted man in the military, what bothered me most about Lawrence as discussed by Asher was his tendency to play with facts, an inclination apparently noted by other biographers. Given that reality is often subjective, I do like to know the facts as accurately as they can be reported. Apparently, Lawrence seems to have appreciated the value of propaganda and chose to exploit it to achieve his ends, which are not terribly clear. Therefore, it's hard to know the whole truth about what happened during the Arab revolt, and Asher finds numerous holes in Lawrence's story.
I'm happy to report that Asher does make clear that Lawrence accomplished much of what he claims to have accomplished, so Lawrence was indeed a dynamic fellow and the right person at the right time to do what he did, but he also makes clear that there are bizarre, masochistic motives that drive Lawrence. Therefore, if you want to truly know the man behind the myth, read on. If you want to preserve a myth, watch the movie, and then read an encyclopedia for broad details about Lawrence's life and the Arab revolt.
I myself am no Lawrence scholar and have something akin to a passing interest in him as a sort of mythological figure like Wyatt Earp or Daniel Boone. This particular book was picked up randomly at a library book sale for a quarter to supplement my knowledge of T.E. Lawrence beyond the movie and to help me prepare to read his memoir Seven Pillars of Wisdom, which I've heard is quite literary and even difficult without a bit of background on Lawrence and the Arab revolt.
As a writer and a scholar, Asher is reasonably capable and has adequate credentials to tell his tale. What has been mentioned in other reviews and which I'll echo here is that he unfortunately wants to interrupt the flow of Lawrence's biography by interjecting his first-person accounts of his travels around the same areas Lawrence traveled. Although this story-telling technique doesn't ruin the book, it slows down the pace and adds little if anything the reader needs or wants to know. To me, it serves as an annoying distraction. It's typical also for Asher to want to pick apart the mind of T.E. Lawrence and give some debatable theories about the motives behind Lawrence's actions. Certainly, Asher appears to do his homework and his assumptions about Lawrence seem well supported, but what is hard to take is the unequivocal nature of Asher's assertions. He himself never doubts his assumptions.
However, if the reader can accept that Asher's views are valid, then the reader should also be prepared to discover that Lawrence was more than a little eccentric, something bound to undermine the beautiful myth around the man. Aside from the details given about Lawrence's truly weird need for self-debasement in the form of flagellation as well as his decision to spend his adult life after Arabia as an enlisted man in the military, what bothered me most about Lawrence as discussed by Asher was his tendency to play with facts, an inclination apparently noted by other biographers. Given that reality is often subjective, I do like to know the facts as accurately as they can be reported. Apparently, Lawrence seems to have appreciated the value of propaganda and chose to exploit it to achieve his ends, which are not terribly clear. Therefore, it's hard to know the whole truth about what happened during the Arab revolt, and Asher finds numerous holes in Lawrence's story.
I'm happy to report that Asher does make clear that Lawrence accomplished much of what he claims to have accomplished, so Lawrence was indeed a dynamic fellow and the right person at the right time to do what he did, but he also makes clear that there are bizarre, masochistic motives that drive Lawrence. Therefore, if you want to truly know the man behind the myth, read on. If you want to preserve a myth, watch the movie, and then read an encyclopedia for broad details about Lawrence's life and the Arab revolt.
December 7, 2023
I've read already quite a bit about T.A. Lawrence, but this biograpy is not the best there's about him.
As a former Special Forces man and Arabist, Asher get's to much stuck on the details that intrigued him apparantly from those backgrounds. There's a lot of technical details about the battles in which Lawrence of Arabia was involved, filled in with an overwhelming listing of places, peoples and weapons involved. Especialy the endless naming of all the Arabic locations, figures and different tribes involved in the Arabic Revolt make it sometimes a boring read.
Besides that, Asher is very much obsessed with 3 other subjects. First to establish without a doubt that Lawrence was a Homosexual, although he only admits to probably the platonic nature of the relationships he had with a few men and boys. And though he might have point when it comes to a lot of remarks that Lawrence made towards his attraction for men, I'm always very apprehensive about writers who feel it a like a duty to 'Out' someone who's not in the position to commend on that.
Secondly, Asher is out to debunk a couple of myth about the man, either made by Lawrence himself, or instigated by the gloryvying that happenend after Lawrence's return from Arabia and even more after his death. The way Asher goes about this is mostly retracing his steps and trying to figure out what really happenend. Problem with that is that Asher is not a big writer when it comes down to telling his own experiences. So the writing get's a bit dull in those parts. Besides that, he struggles to really find evidence to contrary and ends up leaving it hanging, with some kind commonplace like 'That will always be the mystery of Lawrence of Arabia'
The third and most annoying obsession of Asher is his need to psycholize T. A. Lawrence erratic behaviour during his lifetime. To him it all comes down to a masochistic need to dowgrade himself which can be traced back to the troubled relationship he had with his mother. The trashings she gave him apparantly led to a life long need for flogging and an inferior complex. And although Asher does give some good insight in Lawrence's troubled childhood, I found it a bit much that, as non-profesional in the area, he makes a lot of homegrown assumptions about Lawrence's psychological state.
All in all a readable account of Lawrence of Arabia's life and times with a lot of focus on battles and Arabic figures. And a somewhat clarifying account of his troubled youth.
As a former Special Forces man and Arabist, Asher get's to much stuck on the details that intrigued him apparantly from those backgrounds. There's a lot of technical details about the battles in which Lawrence of Arabia was involved, filled in with an overwhelming listing of places, peoples and weapons involved. Especialy the endless naming of all the Arabic locations, figures and different tribes involved in the Arabic Revolt make it sometimes a boring read.
Besides that, Asher is very much obsessed with 3 other subjects. First to establish without a doubt that Lawrence was a Homosexual, although he only admits to probably the platonic nature of the relationships he had with a few men and boys. And though he might have point when it comes to a lot of remarks that Lawrence made towards his attraction for men, I'm always very apprehensive about writers who feel it a like a duty to 'Out' someone who's not in the position to commend on that.
Secondly, Asher is out to debunk a couple of myth about the man, either made by Lawrence himself, or instigated by the gloryvying that happenend after Lawrence's return from Arabia and even more after his death. The way Asher goes about this is mostly retracing his steps and trying to figure out what really happenend. Problem with that is that Asher is not a big writer when it comes down to telling his own experiences. So the writing get's a bit dull in those parts. Besides that, he struggles to really find evidence to contrary and ends up leaving it hanging, with some kind commonplace like 'That will always be the mystery of Lawrence of Arabia'
The third and most annoying obsession of Asher is his need to psycholize T. A. Lawrence erratic behaviour during his lifetime. To him it all comes down to a masochistic need to dowgrade himself which can be traced back to the troubled relationship he had with his mother. The trashings she gave him apparantly led to a life long need for flogging and an inferior complex. And although Asher does give some good insight in Lawrence's troubled childhood, I found it a bit much that, as non-profesional in the area, he makes a lot of homegrown assumptions about Lawrence's psychological state.
All in all a readable account of Lawrence of Arabia's life and times with a lot of focus on battles and Arabic figures. And a somewhat clarifying account of his troubled youth.
December 22, 2022
You cannot have too many views of T.E. Lawrence.
This view by Michael Asher, with color photographs by Marantonietta Peru, is considered one of the better renditions of the life of Lawrence “the unowned King of Arabia.”
from the book –
“Lawrence descended at Basra, where he ran into several old friends from Carehemish days, including Gertrude Bell and Campbell-Thompson - who are both serving in the Basra Intelligence Department under Sir Percy Cox…”
There only seem to be too small references to Gertrude Bell in this biography.
The notes on the text area at the end of the book, so you have to keep your finger on them, will be reading.
This view by Michael Asher, with color photographs by Marantonietta Peru, is considered one of the better renditions of the life of Lawrence “the unowned King of Arabia.”
from the book –
“Lawrence descended at Basra, where he ran into several old friends from Carehemish days, including Gertrude Bell and Campbell-Thompson - who are both serving in the Basra Intelligence Department under Sir Percy Cox…”
There only seem to be too small references to Gertrude Bell in this biography.
The notes on the text area at the end of the book, so you have to keep your finger on them, will be reading.
September 4, 2022
I didn’t know much about Lawrence of Arabia outside of the name, and though I now know much more about him I can’t say I’m particularly thrilled about it. Lawrence was kind of a cruddy self-aggrandizer and honestly seemed to have mostly been in the right place at the right time versus any kind of brilliant military strategist.
March 16, 2017
While I had no former understanding of TEL, I felt educated on both the man and the time. A complex historical perspective thoroughly explained in this volume.
January 24, 2019
Such a complex character. Now I’d like to go and watch Lawrence of Arabia the movie.
June 17, 2024
A complicated man.
April 3, 2009
Suffice it to say that by the end of this biography, Asher had me agreeing that a number of the most emotionally striking scenes in the movie have asterisks against their veracity because they're based on Seven Pillars, even if you don't already have asterisks against them because Robert Bolt conflated a number of incidents and characters from that book in order to make his screenplay.
On the other hand, it's a really fascinating and remarkably consistent picture of Lawrence, physically fearful and constantly "fleeing forward", that Asher builds, based on his meticulous research, and added to in a real way by his own retracing of Lawrence's steps (it's not nearly as intrusive as you might think; Asher is no dilettante; he'd crossed the Sahara by camel long before he came to write this biography). I got from this book a much better sense of the real Arabs, I think, and the real state of the world at the time (do we forget that WWI was raging in Europe as well?); Asher condemns no-one, least of all Lawrence, but he utterly refuses to buy into the hero myth with which, as he demonstrates, Lawrence had a complex relationship - feeding it, enjoying it, and hating himself for enjoying it to the point of degrading himself deliberately.
It's an interesting substitute for the mystery and charisma (although the real Lawrence doubtless also had both, for his public) that I took away from Peter O'Toole's performance in the David Lean film. I'm glad that, for me, the film came first, and then Lawrence's own bizarre, half-revelatory voice in Seven Pillars, and finally Asher's voice of reason and, I think, authority.
Do you know there are still people who cannot bear to think Lawrence was homosexual? Gay, in the older sense, he was not, and deeply troubled and masochistic he certainly was, but surely Seven Pillars was, as Asher asserts, very much Lawrence's cry to be seen as he was, all the good and bad of him. Even if - and surely he enjoyed the paradox - he revealed this truth by telling lies.
On the other hand, it's a really fascinating and remarkably consistent picture of Lawrence, physically fearful and constantly "fleeing forward", that Asher builds, based on his meticulous research, and added to in a real way by his own retracing of Lawrence's steps (it's not nearly as intrusive as you might think; Asher is no dilettante; he'd crossed the Sahara by camel long before he came to write this biography). I got from this book a much better sense of the real Arabs, I think, and the real state of the world at the time (do we forget that WWI was raging in Europe as well?); Asher condemns no-one, least of all Lawrence, but he utterly refuses to buy into the hero myth with which, as he demonstrates, Lawrence had a complex relationship - feeding it, enjoying it, and hating himself for enjoying it to the point of degrading himself deliberately.
It's an interesting substitute for the mystery and charisma (although the real Lawrence doubtless also had both, for his public) that I took away from Peter O'Toole's performance in the David Lean film. I'm glad that, for me, the film came first, and then Lawrence's own bizarre, half-revelatory voice in Seven Pillars, and finally Asher's voice of reason and, I think, authority.
Do you know there are still people who cannot bear to think Lawrence was homosexual? Gay, in the older sense, he was not, and deeply troubled and masochistic he certainly was, but surely Seven Pillars was, as Asher asserts, very much Lawrence's cry to be seen as he was, all the good and bad of him. Even if - and surely he enjoyed the paradox - he revealed this truth by telling lies.
September 6, 2025
I watched David Lean's film "Lawrence of Arabia" and although it's a great film, it started with Lawrence already in Egypt during WW1 and I was intrigued how he got there. Turns out from this book that he had been an archaeologist in the Middle East for many years, working with the famous Sir Flinders Petrie (well I had heard of him), so that by the time WW1 started, Lawrence already knew the region intimately, spoke Arabic, and had spent years working with Arabs. I was also intrigued in the film how the various Arab factions failed to work together after the war to forge new nations out of the collapsed Ottoman Empire, so I wanted a book which would present the Arab view and not just be a hagiography of Lawrence. This book delivered on all counts I think, with the author being an explorer in the Arab world and an expert on the region, so the Arab viewpoint was well presented both from Lawrence's time and nowadays (the author reports modern Arabs saying that Lawrence was a bit player in the war, not the lynchpin Lawrence portrayed himself as). The author also draws out the many contradictions in Lawrence's own telling of his story in "Seven Pillars of Wisdom", leaving the impression of Lawrence as a deeply flawed hero who happened to be in the right place at the right time. A very readable book, the only flaws being too many Arab technical terms, and a bit too encyclopedic in detail.
December 9, 2013
I've had it a long time and finally got around to it. It was worth the wait. "Lawrence of Arabia" is my choice as the finest movie of all time. Now I have a vivid image of the real Lawrence, or at least Asher depicts him as well as any man could.
September 28, 2012
An excellent biography of a man who has long fascinated me. The author, one of the great desert explorers was himself in the Parachute regiment and the SAS.
September 24, 2012
interesting fasinating character the book brought arabia alive very detailed long read
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews