Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Lawrence’s story – that of a stranger from a far-off world who arrives among an oppressed people and helps to lead them to freedom against terrible odds – is the stuff of legend. And legend he became – with help from this book, an epic film and an ability for ‘backing into the limelight’. In just two years of active service from 1916, Lawrence rescued the Arab Revolt from oblivion, formulating modern guerrilla warfare almost single-handedly, and helping the Arabs to defeat Ottoman overlords who had dominated them for centuries. This is his own gripping account of how, with a small band of Bedouin, he organised raiding parties to attack the Hejaz railway, laid mines, led camel charges, and orchestrated his most famous triumph, the capture of the port of Aqaba, which ranks among the best operations in British military history.