This 128 page paperback version may be a good read. I don't know, haven't read it. My copy is the 946 page hardcover edition. It is thorough, balanced and an excellent read. If you can find that version, get it!

Using extensive documentation, including documents unreleased by the British government when earlier, more speculative biographies were written, Jeremy Wilson produced a phenomenal work of great scope and power. The book may be too exhaustive for casual readers, who will find the reams of speculative nonsense written about Lawrence more to their liking. Wilson also carefully deconstructs many precious Lawrence myths: that Lawrence was homosexual, for instance, is unproven (there's no evidence that he was sexual at all); that he made up large portions of his adventures is also proven untrue -- though in his later writings he sometimes shaped a story to sound better and certainly he had to dance around descriptions of his intelligence work. But these are both side issues. Lawrence lived a life of tremendous accomplishment in the First World War, but in other fields, such as archaeology and literature. Wilson is fair, and corrects Lawrence's own accounts when necessary. This is not a work of hagiography. It is the most well-documented biography of Lawrence, and Wilson quotes primary documentation extensively -- perhaps too extensively. It's a must for the library of any Lawrence fan, and the only necessary secondary reference work for anyone who wants the truth about Lawrence. Those who require something more nonsensical and speculative in their diet may add Knights "Secret Lives of Lawrence of Arabia".

I had previously read the Robert Graves book on Lawrence. This was far more superior. It was engrossing, detailed and made me want to know more about this incredible man. There didn't seem to be any bias for or against Lawrence by the author. It moved quickly. It's apparent that he did a very detailed job of researching Lawrence. I am know looking for other books that might uncover even more information. Enjoy!

This book is a good read and interesting for people who want to get a good overview on the topic and are interested in history. The author sticks to the facts and let Lawrence speak through his letters. This, however, lets many questions of his character open. The author avoids getting deeper into his personality and for those who are interested in the psychology of his character will be a littlebit disappointed. The author does not (like one of the reviewers says) clearifies whether he was homosexual or not, nor does he discusses deeply his relationsship his parents and so on. The book is complementary to the film which makes a better statement about his personality and after reading this book I even more impressed about the film.

Jeremy Wilson's bio of T.E. Lawrence is a great resource and, for a subject so riddled (more than any other I know) by ulterior motive by other authors -- whether it is hero-building or hero-trouncing -- and is probably the only worthwhile biography of TEL ever written.*

*I will give exception to Robert Graves, who's work has literary merit, but its age and rushed composition leaves it unfortunately incomplete and inadequate in points of fact.

Wilson does a great job of putting Lawrence's accomplishements and failures during the Great War into context: a great deal of the book is spent on the background policies and overall Eastern war effort to show us exactly where Lawrence fit in. A great description of Larwrence's time as a young idealist in Syria before the war is also provided. In these two areas there is no greater work provided on Lawrence. However, I find the work loses its scholarly charm after the war, where too much is spent dwelling on the possible pyschological underpinnings of Lawrence, and attempting to explain TEL's motives behind his erradic behavior. This kind of amateur science was handled responsibly for most of the work, but the temptation to delve into the pool of conjecture and broad speculation proved too great for Wilson, as with most authorities on the subject.

The work is well-researched, a bit thin in style, and full of notes and a helpful appendix. Not perfect, but definitely the best pick for a Lawrence bio out there.

I found this extremely readable, and written clearly (a relief after trying to plow through T.E. Lawrence's own murky 7 PILLARS OF WISDOM, a book he himself did not like after he learned that good writing is clear writing). I wouldn't have, and a lot of you reading this, wouldn't have come to this book without the movie, so I would like to mention some things that the movie was wrong about, according to this book. 1) T. E. Lawrence did have to execute an Arab with his pistol, but he DID feel remorse about it and did NOT experience a perverse pleasure at it. 2) He was not homosexual. He in fact asked a girl to marry him, who turned him down. It was standard in that era that an educated Englishman still be a virgin in his mid-20's, and the only reason he stayed a virgin until his death in his 40's was that he was raped by those Turks (as is obliquely referred to in the movie), and as a consequence was (tragically) repulsed by physical human contact thereafter. So he became, as he himself described it, "A lay monk." A first-rate book for anyone interested in the heroic Laurence. (I say heroic because after taking Aquaba, he was up for a Victoria's Cross, England's highest military honor. But he needed an English witness to the event, when only Arabs witnessed it. So he did not get a Victoria's Cross, AND LAWRENCE DIDN'T CARE. He perhaps, then, wasn't as vain as the movie portrayed him to be, either.)