Terence Rattigan’s play, Ross, is the story of Lawrence of Arabia, the scholar and soldier who led the Arabs in their revolt against the Turks in the First World War.After the war Lawrence retired from public life and enlisted in the services under false names. One of those names was ‘Ross’, and the play opens with Lawrence, alias Ross, asleep and dreaming. He is dreaming that someone is giving a public lecture on the Arab campaign and describing Lawrence’s part in it. Lawrence laughs gently in his sleep and the lecturer stops and asks, “What’s the matter?”
“You make it all sound so dull,” says Lawrence.
“Dull?” asks the lecturer.
“Yes,” says Lawrence. “It wasn’t like that at all. Not in the beginning. It was fun.”
This could be said about many things‑“You make it all sound so dull…. It wasn’t like that at all. Not in the beginning. It was fun.”
Geoff Pound
Source: Murray Dell, Shadow of the Best, 29.
Image: Ross.