18/10/2010 by jmw.

The book we are currently working on is a collection of Lawrence’s reports and letters titled Boats for the RAF 1931-1935, to be published in 2011.

Lawrence worked on high-speed launches and other types of boat used by the Air Force from February 1931 until February 1935, when his term of RAF enlistment ended.

Many people find this the most difficult period of his career to comprehend. At the time, some of his ‘intellectual’ friends were disconcerted by his commitment to what they saw as the work of a low-grade mechanic. Some biographers have described it in terms of nihilism, a period in which Lawrence deliberately buried his talents, turning away from his previous life.

Certainly, he read fewer books and wrote shorter, less cerebral letters. After finishing his translation of the Odyssey in 1931 his literary output ceased. Former friends such as Robert Graves regretted the company he kept and lamented the loss of his polished Oxford accent.

By contrast, I think that these last years of Lawrence’s RAF service were highly positive and constructive. His role testing and helping to improve boats was creative and worthwhile. He brought to it practical abilities that had been evident throughout his life. He also had the skill to write persuasive reports, 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 are gathering together a much fuller collection of Lawrence’s writings 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. If future biographers and others who are seriously interested in Lawrence read them, they will at any rate not underrate or misconstrue this period of Lawrence’s life. Those who, like me, are interested in boats and mechanical topics will find that they tell an absorbing story.

The edition will be of 227 copies printed in the same large format as Military Report on the Sinai Peninsula and Towards ‘An English Fourth’.

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20/03/2010 by admin.

I have set up two WordPress sites.

One will contain a selection of postings from the T.E.Lawrence Studies list archive. This will take time to build, but I will add a little now and again. You will find it at:

http://www.blog2.telstudies.org/

The other is a personal blog, enabling me to post in one place the kind of comments I would previously have posted on the T.E. Lawrence Studies list or on this blog or on the News page of the Castle Hill Press website (or elsewhere….) As the number of postings grows I will add categories that should enable you to read the content that interests you.

http://blog.castlehillpress.com/chpblog/

In time I will transfer the content of this blog over to one or the other of these sites.

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05/03/2010 by jmw.

I have not added anything to this blog recently because I want to move it to a platform with full WordPress functionality. I hope to do this during the next few days, and will then post here the URL of the replacement.

I am sorry if this causes any inconvenience.

JW

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06/02/2010 by jmw.

Current World Archaeology/Great Arab Revolt Project

one-day conference
Lawrence, the Arabs, and the genesis of modern guerrilla warfare

Saturday 15 May 2010
Clore Management Centre
Birkbeck University of London
Bloomsbury

On the 75th anniversary of T.E. Lawrence’s death, three leading academic specialists assess his role in the desert war of 1916-1918 and his relevance in understanding the conflicts of the last 90 years. Neil Faulkner and Nick Saunders are joint directors of a pioneering new field project that is investigating the archaeological remains of the conflict along the line of the former Hijaz Railway. Jeremy Wilson, author of Lawrence of Arabia: the authorised biography of T E Lawrence, is widely recognised as the world’s leading authority on his subject. Together, on the basis of radically new evidence and interpretation, they offer a day of illustrated talks and discussion that will reassess Lawrence, his role, and his legacy. And they will draw some stark lessons: about the parallels between the failure of the Ottoman Empire in 1918 and unfolding disaster of the ‘war on terror‘ today.

Download the timetable and prospectus (PDF)

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14/11/2008 by jmw.

The third season of excavations in the Great Arab Revolt Project
is now taking place. You can follow progress in its blog

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23/05/2008 by admin.

This blog replaces the former T. E. Lawrence Studies ‘News’ page. The initial entries have been transferred from the earlier page.

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