123. The Mint by TE Lawrence

'”C*** thinks he's drilling the f***ing depot,' snarled Nobby, beside his thin soul with rage. “Get those forks, and shift the pig-s*** into the lorry.”' This is a fairly representative sample of The Mint, TE Lawrence’s only full-length autobiographical fiction apart from The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. A record of his time in the RAF, it did not see the light of day until long after his death, mainly because of its obscenity, and was circulated in private until publication in 1955. It really is very rude: David Lean, one feels, could not have filmed it successfully.

The title was for many something of a puzzle. There are no mints, after-dinner, numismatic or any other in the book, and the word ‘mint’ is never mentioned. In a letter to RAF chief Sir Hugh Trenchard in 1928 Lawrence explained that he had called it The Mint as an obscure metaphor for the way RAF recruits were trained: ‘we were all being stamped after your image and superscription’.

Consulted:
Garnett, D., ed.: The Letters of TE Lawrence (1938)