Lawrence made his way into the service on two occasions by using adopted names. In August 1927, writing from Karachi, he told Edward Garnett that he had arranged notes in sections and was copying them as a Christmas gift to Garnett. Lawrence told Garnett that he wrote the book tightly, “because our clothes are so tight, and our lives so tight in the service. There is no freedom of conduct at all.” The typescript, made at Garnett s order from the actual manuscript, was revised by Lawrence just before his death and it is that text which the present work follows. Lawrence had intended to print a limited edition himself on a hand-press and had already procured enough copies for its frontispiece of a reproduction of a portrait drawing by Augustus John before his untimely death in a motoring accident. The present limited edition is then, the only one available and most closely followed T.E.L s wishes according to his brother A.W. Lawrence.
