The Mint

The Mint, so-named for the rigourous RAF training that puts men, 'The Raw Material', through the 'Mill' turning them into soldiers, covers T.E. Lawrence's initial service as aircraftman 352087 John Ross between 1922-1923. Composed from notes "scribbled at night, between last post and lights out" (p.7), the typescript was revised by Lawrence just before his untimely death in 1935.

Lawrence's motives for enlisting under an assumed name were complex. They likely included both a practical interest in working with state of the art machinery, as well as an understandable desire to avoid press scrutiny. To his friend B.H. Liddell Hart, they were more esoteric, and 'it may be nearer the truth to say that T.E. went into the Air Force for the same reason that some of the most thoughtful men of the Middle Ages went into a monastery'.

First edition. 4to (26 x 20.5 cm); silk endpapers; publisher's full blue morocco, gilt ruled on border, spine gilt lettered with raised bands, top-edge coloured blue, slight wear to the binding; overall a very good copy; [2], 206pp.