T. E. Lawrence to V. W. Richards

27.2. 20

I've written a letter to Gardiner saying that if we can build in 1921, we'll let him know in good time, and ask him for his last twenty-nine days. I've told him that meanwhile you will set up a hedge, and asked him whether there are any improvements he can think of, since there seems to me no reason why they shouldn't be done.

It seems monstrous that you should put up the fence yourself, while I sit at peace and dream of having written a book. Why can't Rogers hire a man? I can afford that easily.

I'm glad the nurse was not too down on me: it's horrible to know that one is not so good-looking as one's portrait in the Strand. Hoots.

About the book-to-build-the-house. It is on paper in the first draft to the middle of Book vi: and there are seven books in all. But the first draft is a long way off the last one and I feel hopeless about ever finishing it. I work best utterly by myself: when I speak to no one for days. So that's a consoling prospect for you in the hut (or Hall: q.e.v.) days of garrulity divided by days of silence. Hoots again. Gardiner to return to business says 'Hut, Hawkes Head'. Stokes & Stokes say 'King’s Head': you say 'Pole Hill'. Which? Pole Hill Press sounds nicest. I'm sorry to raise this again. Hawkes are poor eating, and Kings, if eaten, would taste like them. Also heads are the worst part of everything except asparagus.

I haven't read Boon: and I don’t like Wells. He has written eighty books.

McDougall reproaches me on the shelf. He has not been taken down since I began Book vi. Do you ever come into London. Because if so, I'll return him, and Bradley, it's a shame to keep them so long.

L.