T. E. Lawrence Correspondence – Page 591

-4- 27.XII.23 .... "About libel I've got an infallible escape from that not for myself, but for the printer. All I have to do is to infringe the Copyright Act, in addition to the Law of Libel, and there the other man is safe. It won't bear writing though or he might be made accessory. As I explained libel has no terrors for the Tank Corps: civil can only cast 6 months in the 2nd Division; which is easier than barren life." (P.S.) Clouds' Hill is a lonely cottage on a heath near camp. I'm the only inhabitant, and so any letters with "Clouds Hill" on them will find me eventually." _________ 14.1.24. "I've just waked with the ruins of my motor-bike, and feel like a blinded owl caged in camp. Whence this dismalness of writing: Wish I was cremated, or in a tower of silence, being eaten by birds of prey, very very deliberately." _________ 23.1.24. "It 'will be a fine book when it is born' .... hum .... hum .... hum. I hope so: but am dubious. One great fence is passed. Fixe is the perfect person to print it: absolutely perfect: no more needs saying. An absolutely ideal man. You are a genius to have found him. Thanks to his editing (I want him to be to the letter-press what you are to the pictures) the text will not be wholly contemptible in form .... As for the content . . . ." "I warn you that this is a lewd lecherous unholy book, a disgusting exhibition, in the worst manner, of a contemptible personality. Its truths are feeble, worn-out, overworked: it's calculated only to interest the vulgar, to enthuse the weak-minded, to ensnare the innocent. It should never have been written, would never have been written, except by a corrupt self-advertising fraudulent petter blackguard. Poof. Poof. Poof." The Roberts portrait is amiss if it confers upon me truculence and confusion and resentment. I'm hesitant and simple, and grudge only the fact that I haven't any grudge against anyone." _________ Clouds Hill Moreton Dorset 10. 2. 24 "I'm unable to improve the libel chances. It stands this way. The book is libellous, as against some Englishmen, Some Frenchmen, Some Arabs Some Turks. The danger of proceedings runs in this national order. I'll do my best to prevent them (i) by toning down (ii) by informing my victims, before proofs are passed, of what I say about them, but I don't guarantee the efficacy of either proceeding.