17 DECEMBER 1954, Page 7

T. E. Lawrence ' Toute la vine en parte,' it

says on the cover of Lawrence l'Imposteur; for that—although Mr. Richard Aldington writes in his introduction ' Cette biographie porte en sous-titre " La legende et l'homnze" '—is what the less mealy-mouthed French have called the book. The French edition will be reviewed shortly in the Spectator. I notice that the translators, of whom no less than three were employed, got slightly out of their depth on the first page of the introduction, in which Mr. Aldington licks his chops over the singularly painful duty' before him. ' I addressed myself,' they make the author say, ' to Mr. Amery, now Lord Lloyd . . . and to Sir Ronald Storrs. Both described these claims as being without foundation.' Debunking is the process of making people look smaller; it seems a bit hard to make them fewer as well.