T.E. LAWRENCE TO HIS BIOGRAPHERS, ROBERT GRAVES AND LIDDELL HART

More merchandise from the booming Lawrence of Arabia industry, this is actually a one-volume re-edition of two books publishedmore than 20 years ago. Poet Robert Graves and historian Liddell Hart were Lawrence's only official biographers; they were also his buddies. Thus the letters from him to them concern both private matters and question-and-answer aspects about Lawrence's Middle East campaign and his mammoth survey of the subject, the famous Seven Pillars. The Graves book attempts as far as possible- and it isn't always very far- to comment on Lawrence's "chameleon-like character". Lawrence himself offers, in many playfully profound passages, a sometimes stunning self-analysis, but generally he seems to "love" his legend- and he was a legend then just as much as he is now. He says: "I'd wish every man to be an everlasting question mark". The Hart book is more stiff-upper- lip and factual, brimming with blueprint recapitulations of the battles and machinations, both political and military, behind the Arab Revolt. No, neither book solves the enigma of the Mystery Man of Mecca, but almost every page offers entertaining and endless "clues". Definitely a dream for the Lawrence addicts.