Young Lawrence: A Portrait of the Legend as a Young Man

· Hachette UK
5.0
1 review
Ebook
352
Pages
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About this ebook

T. E. Lawrence was one of the most charismatic characters of the First World War; a young archaeologist who fought with the Arabs and wrote an epic and very personal account of their revolt against the Turks in Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Yet this was not the first book to carry that iconic title.

In 1914 the man who would become Lawrence of Arabia burnt the first Seven Pillars of Wisdom, a manuscript in which he described his adventures in the Middle East during the five years before the war.

Anthony Sattin uncovers the story Lawrence wanted to conceal: the truth of his birth, his tortuous relationship with a dominant mother, his deep affection for an Arab boy, the intimate details of the extraordinary journeys he took through the region with which his name is forever connected and the personal reasons that drove him from being a student to becoming an archaeologist and a spy.

Young Lawrence is the first book to focus on the story of T. E. Lawrence in his twenties, before the war, during the period he looked back on as his golden years. Using first-hand sources, museum records and Foreign Office documents, Sattin sets these adventures against the background of corrosive conflicts in Libya and the Balkans. He shows the simmering defiance of Arabs, Armenians and Kurds under Turkish domination, while uncovering the story of an exceptional young man searching for happiness, love and his place in the world until war changed his life forever.

Ratings and reviews

5.0
1 review
Dave Lazzari
January 2, 2020
Concentrating on the time before the birth of the legend this is an entertaining, informative and very readable tale that highlights the important archeological works in which Lawrence was involved in Syria before the outbreak of WWI. Highly recommended
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About the author

Anthony Sattin is a journalist, broadcaster and the author of several highly acclaimed books of history and travel including The Gates of Africa, Lifting the Veil and A Winter on the Nile. He is editorial advisor on Geographical Magazine, a contributing editor to Condé Nast Traveller and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He lives in London and the Middle East.

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