The Rash Adventurer: A Life of John Pendlebury

John Pendlebury (1904-41), the 'Cretan Lawrence', was shot in the first months of the German occupation of Crete while organizing bands of guerrillas to fight the invaders. Not a professional soldier, Pendlebury was chosen for the task because of his intimate knowledge of Crete, its people and language which he had acquired through his years of archaeological experience on the island. As Curator at Knossos, successor to Sir Arthur Evans, his athleticism and taste for adventure took him all over the island in search of ancient sites. Pendlebury's passion for the ancient world also took him to Egypt, where he was Director of the excavations at Tell el-Amarna, city of the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten and his queen, Nefertiti. In this, the first biography of John Pendlebury, Imogen Grundon constructs a vivid picture of a brilliant and charismatic scholar-hero, whose life was lived, and ultimately lost, by an ideal of romantic chivalry.