In his new book covering the Arab Revolt of 1916-18, Sir Ranulph Fiennes says he “can offer a unique perspective” on the “fascinating” life of TE Lawrence. He is right.  For in 1967, as a bored officer in the Royal Scots Greys, Fiennes joined the Sultan of Oman’s army to fight the Moscow and Peking-backed Dhofar Liberation Front. Oil had sprung from the desert sands in 1964, “but the Sultan had retired to his palace and kept the country in the dark ages.” Fiennes writes: “Like TE Lawrence, I led an Arab platoon in a fight for their country.” Five-foot-five with blue eyes, Lawrence, born in Tremadog in 1888, arrived in Cairo as an Arabic-speaking intelligence officer in November 1914. Russia was eyeing swathes of the decayed Ottoman Empire while the Allies battled it out points west (two of Lawrence’s younger brothers perished in France). Lawrence supported the Arabs’ struggle to liberate themselves from their Turkish overlords from the start.…