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Sands of timeLawrence of Arabia has become a legend – but as the truth becomes buried by stories, NADFAS-accredited Lecturer Neil Faulkner explains why a new exhibition at the National Civil War Centre will reveal the real manAbove: Peter O’Toole immortalises Lawrence in David Lean’s fi lm – but with the wrong kind of gun!The word ‘legend’ has become cliché. It is used routinely about media-manufactured ‘superstars’ who will be forgotten in the next generation. We have any number of sports ‘legends’ and screen ‘legends’ that are nothing of the sort.It is a pity the word has lost its power through over-use. We need the word to express a concept: that there are stories about real people and events that have endured as folklore, evolving and growing as they are repeatedly re-told until they become multi-layered constructs, encrusted with fabrication. Thus, if Achilles, or Arthur, or Beowulf, or any other hero of ancient or medieval legend actually existed, we must assume that the stories we now have of them are 90%, perhaps even 99%, fi ction.In this true sense of the word, ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ is a modern legend. For 100 years, T E Lawrence and his role in the Arab Revolt of 1916–18 have been endlessly reconfi gured in literature, on stage, in the press, on the silver screen, even in children’s books and comics.There are now many ‘Lawrences’. At one extreme, he is pilloried as a liar, charlatan, and self-promoting imposter. At the other, he is elevated into a Hollywood action hero. His life story is regurgitated in a steady stream of plodding biographies with nothing new to say, or analysed in intimate detail from different angles by leading Lawrence scholars like psychiatrist John Mack or authorised biographer Jeremy Wilson. Will the real Lawrence please stand up! Many studies purport to tell us what he was really like. More often than not, they refl ect the prejudices and preoccupations of the contemporary world. Compare, for example, George Bernard Shaw’s ‘Private Meek’ in Too True to be Good (1932) – a thinly disguised post-war Lawrence – with Terrence Rattigan’s ‘Ross’ (in the 1960 play of that name) or David Lean’s ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ (in the 1962 fi lm). The former is a genius hiding behind a mask of anonymity and deference in the ranks of the interwar Army. The 30 NADFAS REVIEW / SUMMER 2016 www.nadfas.org.ukImages: fi lm still © Bridgeman Image Library; others courtesy Neil Faulkner.