Author Archive

A new edition in progress. I completed Lawrence of Arabia, The Authorised Biography in 1989. The full text ran to 1,200 pages – around half a million words. It was published in Britain that year by Heinemann, and in the US by Atheneum in 1990. The New York Times Review of Books ranked it among...
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I am sometimes asked for a list of the Castle Hill Press editions of T. E. Lawrence’s works and letters, already issued and planned for the future. We recently re-thought the structure of the series, so this is a good time for an update. The edition is in three parts: Works Correspondence with writers, bookmen and artists...
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A recent blog posting about “signed” ebooks set me thinking about the prospects for ebook collecting. These are, surely, close to zero. By definition, an ebook is intangible. The tangible object is the ebook reader. You can read an ebook – but you can’t pick it up. Moreover, developing technology is likely to render today’s...
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Note: The subscription for this volume closes on Friday 4 March. Prospectus>> Several things have struck me while gathering the texts for Boats for the R.A.F. 1931-1935. First, this is an area that Lawrence’s biographers have, on the whole, left unexplored beyond a bare outline. Some, like Victoria Ocampo and Harold Orlans seem...
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The subscription period is now open for Boats for the R.A.F. This is a fine-press edition, limited to 227 copies of which 195 are for sale. Boats for the R.A.F. is one of two planned Castle Hill Press volumes that will bridge between our editions of Lawrence’s works and our T.E. Lawrence Letters series....
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Because of exceptional commitments elsewhere during 2010, I had to scale back a number of activities. One of these was the T.E. Lawrence Studies discussion list, which I moderate. We closed the list temporarily to new members. The subscription is now open again. For details see www.telstudies.org
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T. E. Lawrence, Correspondence with E. M. Forster and F. L. Lucas Fine-press edition of 377 numbered copies published for subscribers Fordingbridge, Castle Hill Press, 2010 Lawrence, said his friend Robert Graves, ‘compartmentalised’ his friendships. The volumes already published in the T. E Lawrence Letters series* provide ample evidence of that. Although Lawrence met and corresponded...
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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...
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eBooks and their manufacturers have brought something of a culture shift to the profession of publishing. Print publishers are – to say the least – conservative about spending money on publicity. eBooks, however, are a product of the consumer electronics industry. Like the motor-industry of old, this thrives on innovation and obsolescence, styling and fashion, and...
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In the past, like most self-employed people, I rarely acknowledged that one day I’d have to stop working. I enjoyed excellent health. ‘Retirement age’ was never an issue. That changed in 2006, when I was ill for several months.  I realised that in 2014 – not so far away – I’d be 70. With luck...
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