MATTHEW HAWKINS applauds a psychotherapist’s disection of William Blake
Digging out the truth
LAWRENCE REVISITED: (L toR) Thomas Edward Lawrence in 1919 and Peter O'Toole as Lawrence in David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia
[(L to R) Public domain and IMDb] 
New releases from Christina Alden and Alex Patterson, Odette Michell, Clementine Lovell
JOHN GREEN is fascinated by a very readable account of Britain’s involvement in South America
Strip cartoons used to be the bread and butter of newspapers and they have been around for centuries. MICHAL BONCZA asks our own Paul Tanner about which bees are in his bonnet
GORDON PARSONS acknowledges the authority with which Sarah Kane’s theatrical justification for suicide has resonance today
RON JACOBS welcomes a timely homage to one of the IWW and CPUSA’s most effective orators
I’VE been preparing this play now for the last nine years. Started on an archaeological dig in Jordan in 2013, where I was writer in residence with GARP (Great Arab Revolt Project) co-directed by Neil Faulkner, the play speaks to our time.
Archaeology has its genres too, and this dig, Modern Conflict Archaeology, examined the united tribal Bedouin revolt against the Turks, allied with Germany in WWI, through the complex character of TE Lawrence, mythologised as Lawrence of Arabia.
I had a teenage fascination with Lawrence after seeing the David Lean movie in the 1960s, and Peter O’Toole’s lovely blue eyes soon gave way to reading the real Lawrence and realising what an astounding writer he was.
More from this author
JAN WOOLF finds out where she came from and where she’s going amid Pete Townshend’s tribute to 1970s youth culture
JAN WOOLF applauds the necessarily subversive character of the Palestinian poster in Britain
This is poetry in paint, spectacular but never spectacle for its own sake, writes JAN WOOLF
JAN WOOLF relishes a book of poetry that deploys the energy of political struggle, rooted in post-war working class history and culture
