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Lawrence of Arabia, meet Curt of Cairo

A review of Lawrence of Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East, by Scott Anderson. Increasing the cast list of T.E. Lawrence's story doesn't add to the interest

8 March 2014

9:00 AM

8 March 2014

9:00 AM

Lawrence of Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East Scott Anderson

Atlantic Books, pp.575, £25, ISBN: 9781782392019

How do you write a new book about T.E. Lawrence, especially when the man himself described his escapades, or a version of them, with such inimitable genius? Scott Anderson’s answer is to intercut Lawrence’s extraordinary story — the camel raids and blown-up bridges, the rape and torture, the lies and shame — with those of three contemporaries, all supposedly engaged in a grand intelligence duel in Syria and Arabia.

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