RAF again

In mid-1925 Lawrence was in a deeply depressed state. To the strain of working on SP had been added the disappointment of not getting back into the RAF, just when it had seemed within his grasp. Trenchard had withdrawn his objection to Lawrence rejoining, but then the idea was vetoed by Hoare. In the letter to Garnett which accompanied the revised Book VI, Lawrence wrote 'What muck, irredeemable, irremediable, the whole thing is! How on earth can you have once thought it passable? My gloomy view of it deepens each time I have to wade through it. If you want to see how good situations, good characters, good material can be wickedly bungled, refer to any page, passim. There isn't a scribbler in Fleet Street who wouldn't have got more fire and colour into every paragraph.' This despairing judgement on his writing was followed by what Garnett took to be a clear hint of Lawrence's intention to commit suicide - '. . . I'm no bloody good on earth. So I'm going to quit: but in my usual comic fashion I'm going to finish the reprint and square up with Cape before I hop it!' (1)

Naturally alarmed by this, Garnett contacted Bernard Shaw, who, together with John Buchan, appealed to the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, to intervene on Lawrence's behalf. This Baldwin did, and approval of Lawrence's transfer from the Royal Tank Corps to the RAF was signed by the Chief of the Air Staff on 16th July 1925. Lawrence was to show his gratitude later by sending to Baldwin, through John Buchan, an incomplete copy of SP, describing it as 'no great return (incomplete copies have no future in the second-hand market).' (2)

So Lawrence went off to West Drayton, and eventually on to Cranwell in August. Garnett received Book IX at the end of July 1925, by which time work was in hand on the printing of the whole text from page 80 up to that point; Lawrence further commented, in sending this latest section, that the Books 'take long to do: and besides them I've to read and correct proofs of three or four earlier books . . . Alas, it is too long.' (3) September saw another step towards publication, when a contract was signed giving George Doran publication rights in the United States.

As the year ended, Lawrence contentedly settled into RAF life once more. The work of revising the text had slowed, but the edition was on the point of being over-subscribed. Christmas 1925 was spent at Cranwell, correcting proofs.

1	L 266, 13.VI.25
2	L 291, John Buchan, December 1926
3	L 270, E Garnett, 27.VII. 25

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