T E Lawrence

A Syrian comrade sent me this: "About the most contemptible character in my youth was T. E. Lawrence, and time did not mellow my dislike of this 'clever dick' even after I learnt that he really was psychologically very disturbed from a thoroughly researched book published by Philip Knightly and a colleague I cannot remember his name. I believe both were on the staff of the Sunday Times, when reading the Sunday Times was not self immolation for the sake of the Murdoch!    Recently, I cam across a book by صبحي العمري. This Iraqi person joined the Arab revolt in its early phases. He was even mistaken in the UK press for being Lawrence - and of course, Lawrence did not oblige with a correction! Later in life he did sell his sole, and was sentenced by the Syrian Military Tribunal in the famous Stone Plot - for a long prison sentence. I am not sure he served all of it, or any of it.  He wrote a book about this Lawrence character. If you are so inclined, I would be happy to email it. I have it on my home machine and I am at work at the moment.  Lawrence was a relative of G B Shaw - probably through his mother. He made quite an entry in the literary salons with his Seven Pillars. But the book made him really quite famous in England when its Empire began giving way to the richer and more powerful US.  The book was received in exactly this sense, and its literary value was a validating 'bonus' - just as that by Winston Churchill about his exploits in the Boer War which catapulted him into the political limelight for the next half a century."