There have been literally hundreds of books about T. E. Lawrence, best
known as Lawrence of Arabia, but never a work quite like Legion.
Legion tells the astonishing life story of an man who was far more
than a war hero; for Lawrence was also an archaeologist, a linguist and
translator, a historian and classicist, a marine engineer, an airman and
one of the great English writers of the 20th century.
He was also an enigma, even at times to himself, tormented by guilt and
shame, by his masochism, self-loathing and his fear of his own
sexuality.
Legion unearths not only a trove of little-known facts and stories
about Lawrence's life, but also the fascinating details of what he has
meant to many people, both in his lifetime and ever since.
He has been hailed as the last romantic hero, despised as an agent of
imperialism, blamed for the disasters of Middle Eastern politics and
admired as a genius by countless eminent people - from statesmen such as
Winston Churchill and Andre Malraux, to writers such as E. M. Forster
and George Bernard Shaw. And, of course, he found a new form of
immortality in David Lean's masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia.
Legion argues that Lawrence's true genius lies not in any one of his
remarkable astonishments, but in their totality. Its novel approach to
the hero will delight his many fans and surprise and enlighten those who
know nothing of him save the popular myth.
