Lawrence of Arabia: The Man and the Motive

by Anthony Nutting

Biography of T.E. Lawrence, the illegitimate child of an Irish baronet and student of archeology who lived among the Arabs during World War I as a self-appointed British emissary, fought, was captured, tortured, and escaped. Nutting was a British career diplomat and staff support to high officials in the department of Foreign Affairs.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, War

252 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Sir Harold Anthony Nutting, 3rd Baronet was a British diplomat and Conservative Party politician who served as a Member of Parliament from 1945 and 1956. He was a Minister of State for Foreign Affairs from 1954 until he resigned in 1956 in protest against the Suez invasion.

During WW2 he entered the Foreign Service, serving as an attaché at the British Embassy in Paris. When France fell, he was assigned to the embassy in Madrid, where he organised escape routes for Allied servicemen caught behind enemy lines from 1940 to 1944. He joined the Embassy in Rome from 1944 to 1945 and was briefly private secretary to Anthony Eden, the then Foreign Secretary.

At the 1945 general election, at 25, Nutting was elected as the MP for Melton in Leicestershire. He served as chairman of the Young Conservatives (1946 - 47) and he was the youngest member of Winston Churchill's Government in the 1950s.

He was made a Privy Councillor in 1954 and he led the British delegation to the United Nations General Assembly and Disarmament Commission in 1954 and 1955. He was an internationalist, an early enthusiast for British membership of the European Economic Community and an Arabist who was a founding member of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding (CAABU) in 1967.

In 1954, he negotiated the final steps of the treaty with President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt under which British troops withdrew from Suez; so when he discovered the joint British and French invasion plan at a meeting on 14 October 1956, he believed that the mission was mistaken and deceitful. On 31 October, despite attempts by future Prime Minister Harold Macmillan to persuade him not to resign, Nutting quit his post as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. He did not give the customary resignation speech in the House of Commons for security reasons, and his unexplained action proved so unpopular that his constituents forced him to give up his seat in Parliament.

Reviews

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anthony Nutting's Lawrence of Arabia: The Man and the Motive offers a workmanlike capitulation of the Lawrence legend by a distinguished author. A British Foreign Office official who'd famously resigned in protest of the Suez Crisis, Nutting surely connected with Lawrence's feelings of dual loyalty, sympathy for Arab nationalism and sense of betrayal by his superiors more than most biographers. To his credit, Nutting's narrative is clean, well-paced and accessibly written; he only occasionally delves into side controversies like the Deraa incident (taking swipes at Richard Aldington and playwright Terence Rattigan there) and his portrayal of Lawrence as "impish, vain but with a strong note of self-criticism" is consistent and convincing, if not especially deep. But Nutting mostly rehashes Seven Pillars of Wisdom and other Lawrence writings, with occasional commentary and an annoying habit of dramatized, where not invented dialogue and thoughts that make his book seem more like a novel than a biography; the reader might wonder why they didn't just revisit Seven Pillars. Nutting served as historical adviser on David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia, and there's little doubt that Lean and his screenwriters absorbed much of Nutting's portrayal of Lawrence as a "rabid masochist" whose egomania clashed with his insecurities, inspiring how generations of moviegoers and laymen understood Lawrence. Even with that connection, Nutting's book is merely a minor addition to the shelves of Lawrence literature.

[Ian Laird · Rating 3 out of 5]

I realise now, in my eighth decade, that TE Lawrence played a more significant part in my young life than I had given credit. Lawrence of Arabia was the first film I saw in the cinema, which was a special event in every way, it was a very long film, with an intermission.

I was taken into the city by my parents as it was an outing, there were no suburban cinemas at that time. For a time I thought all films were going to be as magnificent as Lawrence, especially as it was accompanied by a lavish pictorial magazine (which I still have). The film started a lifelong enthusiasm for the cinema.

This biography by Anthony Nutting, later Sir Anthony, was my first biography, and I marveled at the adventurousness of the story, how brave and clever Lawrence was. I didn't really understand the middle eastern politics, it was fully a decade later that I studied oil politics in that part of the world, in the very places where Lawrence rode.

I did not understand at the time, but I do now, why Lawrence sought anonymity after his time in the desert. A place in the sun can be thrilling, but but you can stay out in it too long.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was well written - concise, not verbose and the style made it easy to follow TE Lawrence's campaign. The maps in the book were exceptionally helpful in understanding the geography of his travels. Lawrence is one of the most interesting characters from recent history, and I will certainly read another book about him.

[Feliks · Rating 1 out of 5]

Perhaps the worst historical biography I've ever suffered. Atrocious. Breaks nearly every rule of scholasticism. A concoction of the author's personal ruminations and half-scraps of well-worn gossip.

[Ruthenator · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a hard time getting through this book. I had to put it down for a few months and read some others before I finished it.

[Amulya Saikia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent biography of T E Lawrence from obscurity to a famous individual with self driven, ambitious attitude wrote the history of Arabia.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably one of the best T. E. Lawrence biographies ever written. It is a shame that he died so young. He lived in one of the Golden Ages of Adventuring and discovery.

[Batool Ahmad · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s basically a homage to a man who for his own narcissistic agenda claimed more power than any man should hold and created havoc in an entire region and caused so much suffering for so many people. And in so many ways - this biography is a one sided tribute to him.

Basically built to the greatest extent of TEs own Seven pillars and filled out with what appears to be rumours and hearsay’s.

A great campaign to build sympathy and pity and becomes the contrary to an objective and unbiased biography. Even if I wanted to - I couldn’t form my own opinion of the man based on this biography because I had to fact check the majority of incidents and claims and found most to be untrue.

I did however learn a great deal due to me having to do parallel research while reading the book which of course is never time wasted.

[Michel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting because of who the author is (a British diplomat knowledgeable about the Middle East). As a scholarly biography, it is short and somewhat lacking, although his judgment on the big questions about T.E. Lawrence is, on the whole, I think, probably right. Lawrence was a tortured man if there was one...

Nutting was an advisor to the director of the movie "Lawrence of Arabia" (David Lean) and some of the excesses of Lawrence's character there must be due to him.

There are better scholarly biographies of Lawrence, yet, regrettably, none of them can claim to be the "final" one. Of course, Lawrence's own book, "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" needs reading. The style is magnificent, and the depth of the introspection in this book has rarely been equaled---although the truth of every historical statement in the book needs to be questioned.

[Peter Burton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found to be a very succinct but complete account of his life and times as well as looking at the various questions and problems in examining his life -his motivation,his success and his attitude to his success,the reasons for leaving the public eye,his aims etc.Well worth a read if you could find it.

[Jeremy Schmitz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lacking sources, no comparison, aka onesided, difficult to understand, hard to imerse

[Du · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit stale at times, but overall quite well done. It made me want to rewatch the movie.

[Σταύρος Παυλίδης · Rating 4 out of 5]

Η περιπετειώδης βιογραφία ενός ανθρώπου που μοιάζει με παραμύθι.Πολύ καλό βιβλίο.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this book in a small Catholic library in the lands where Lawrence became famous. Its cover looked old and boring, but it turned out to be a delightful read.