ABSTRACT
In October 1918, his military role in the Arab Revolt at an end, T. E. Lawrence returned from the Arabian desert to London, 'the great city of modernity', to confront the image of himself represented there. Stories of his adventures were already public knowledge in governing and intellectual circles, and from the moment of his return Lawrence found himself to be among the most sought-after men in the metropolis. 1 London was by this time
the world's biggest city, still expanding with extraordinary rapidity, generating a remarkable cityscape and a fascinating technology …. [This] made for a sense of excitement and stimulus. London had now become the outright point of concentration for English national culture . . . ; through it and from it came the newspapers, the books and the ideas of the country at large. … It was the capital of Empire and the centre of world trade … a 'world city' with a world hinterland, an entrepot for culture, publishing, finance and shipping, a magnet . . . for migration …. [It] teemed with suggestions of indefinite and sometimes outrageous possibility, of hidden but magnificent meanings. 2
