T. E. Lawrence Correspondence – Page 310

To R. Williamson 18.3.30 - 21.3.30. Much interrupted THE 338171 A/c Shaw R.A.F. Mount Batten Plymouth Dear H.W., I have been too long, perhaps, over the Patriot's Tro...ant: but after my first reading of it everybody in the Hut got hold of it, and I only saw it again yes- terday, when I read it for the second time. It is all right; that is the first thing to say. To do a war-book is very hard now, after all that has been written, but yours survives as a thing of its own. I heaved a great sigh of relief when it walked... I ike sa...y s ail. Your writing scope grows on me. This book is a tapestry, a decoration: the almost-null J.B. set against a marvellous background. It is the most completely two- a mar...lous thing possible - and on the other hand you give us your cycle of poems about yourself ". career), which are as completely three-dimensional, full of char- acters as a Christmas Pudding of almonds, with the char- acters as a Christmas Pudding occasionally significant. ground only occasional, and only of the F.P. that you I am convinced, by both Term and the F.P., that you have many other books to write before you repeat yourself and become a classic. I sandwiched the F.P. between readings of " Her Privates We". The F.P. is natural man, making no great eyes at him: whereas "Her Privates is shows the adventures of queer man in abnormal circumstances. The at grips with normal men and doing so well. Yours in the two books complement each other - except perhaps for the book's unsentimentah war-book - except perhaps the first first? quite a man's book, and nobody could have thought less well of you las last page, I should have thought less well of you of farewell. Without that touch of irony here and there A hint? One the incidental beauties of the book - the dew-drops ... its leaves - are an of .. hardly to be seen. That, on its ... in a book whose restraint is so strong: I feel, is high praise. 687