Thomas Edward Lawrence was born in 1888. Educated at Oxford, he was later made a research fellow of All Souls College. During the First World War he was attached to the Hejaz Expeditionary Force and later transferred to General Allenby s staff. In 1921 he became Advisor on Arab Affairs in the Colonial Office. In 1927, uncomfortable with his 'Lawrence of Arabia' legend, Lawrence joined the RAF. He was killed in a motobike accident in 1935 at the age of 47. Author of the classic Seven Pillars of Wisdom and its abridged version, Revolt in the Desert (Tauris Parke Paperbacks), Lawrence also wrote a prose translation of Homer s Odyssey.
