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CATALOGUE

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Works

The Mint, 1928 text
Military Report on the Sinai Peninsula

Translation

The Forest Giant

Letters

T. E. Lawrence Letters series
Correspondence with Bernard and Charlotte Shaw
Correspondence with E. M. Forster and F.L. Lucas
Correspondence with Henry Williamson

See our full catalogue

  Page updated
 12 November 2008

 

T. E. Lawrence, Boats for the R.A.F.

Reports and correspondence, 1931-1935

Edited by Jeremy and Nicole Wilson

Forthcoming, Castle Hill Press, autumn 2011
Edition of 227 numbered copies

From the spring of 1931 until the end of his term of enlistment in February 1935, Lawrence was part of a small team developing marine craft for the RAF. In normal service, boats were needed as seaplane tenders and for towing practice-bombing targets, as well as general purpose workboats and refuelling dinghies. In emergencies, when aircraft came down at sea, the lives of aircrew depended on high-speed search and rescue.

Some of his 'intellectual' friends were disconcerted by Lawrence's commitment to what they saw as the work of a low-grade mechanic. Some biographers - especially those with no liking for boats or for practical work in general - have depicted this as the least interesting period in his life. For them, he seems to have deliberately buried his talents, driven by personal nihilism to turn his back on his previous life, achievements and interests.

Certainly, he had less free time for reading and wrote shorter, less cerebral letters. After finishing his translation of the Odyssey in 1931 his literary output ceased - though he planned to write again once he had retired from the Air Force. Meanwhile, former friends such as Robert Graves regretted the company he kept and lamented the loss of his polished Oxford accent.    

The evidence presents a very different story. These last years of Lawrence's RAF service were positive and constructive. Throughout his life he had demonstrated strong practical gifts - as a photographer, traveller, archaeologist and wartime guerrilla leader. His role testing and helping to improve boats was creative and worthwhile. He brought to it not only practical abilities but his skills as a writer, drafting persuasive letters and reports. His everyday work benefited from the gift for motivating people that had characterised his wartime leadership, while his friendships with key figures in the Air Force and in government enabled him to bypass obstacles in the military hierarchy in order to get things done. Lawrence approached the work with dedication and enthusiasm, knowing that he was making an important contribution.

I hope that some of this is apparent from the section 'Later Writings About Service Life' that we added to our edition of the 1928 text of The Mint. In this new volume we have gathered a much fuller collection of Lawrence's writings and correspondence about RAF boats. These not only tell us in some detail what he was working on during those years, but also display his skill communicating technical matters to a wide range of readers.

I think that making these writings more easily available is an important step towards biographical balance. They provide a deeper understanding of Lawrence's natural skills and personality. These insights apply to his entire life, though they are less evident in writings and correspondence from other periods.  Boats for the RAF also tells an absorbing story that should appeal particularly to readers interested in motor-boats.

 

PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION

Contents

The volume belongs in our edition of Lawrence's works, but also contains 188 letters that we do not plan to reprint in the Letters series. There are letters (a number previously unpublished) to Flight Lieutenant W.E.G. Beauforte-Greenwood, and to others involved in the development of RAF boats. Reports include Lawrence's Notes on Handling the RAF 200 Class Seaplane Tender, and his previously unpublished log of maintenance work at Bridlington during the winter of 1934-5. This last was the last substantial written task he completed before his death. 

Bindings

The spines of the binding styles are designed to match the bindings of our large-format edition of The Mint and Later Writings about Service Life (2009)

  • While the spine-height is the same, the book is in the narrower format of the T.E. Lawrence Letters series.

Edition of 227 numbered copies, of which 195 are for sale.

432 pages, frontis., illustrations. fold-out plans

Designed and typeset in Caslon by Castle Hill Press. Printed on high-quality paper.

Bound by The Fine Book Bindery.

Quarter-cloth

150 copies (numbered 46-195) will be quarter-bound.

  • The quarter-cloth binding corresponds to the quarter-cloth binding of our large-format Mint, with cream canvas spine, spine label, and grey paper-covered boards. Issued in a rigid cloth-covered slip-case.
  • The quarter-goatskin binding corresponds to the quarter-goatskin binding of our large format Mint. 

Full goatskin binding

This issue will be accompanied by two large-format design drawings of RAF boats on which Lawrence worked.

45 copies (numbered 1-45) will be bound in full grey goatskin with raised bands on the spine, to give a similar appearance on the shelf to the full-goatskin binding of our large-format Mint. Top edge stained, head and tail bands.

Issued in a rigid cloth-covered slip-case.

Thirty-seven copies, numbered I-XXXV, A and B are reserved

 

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