Sexuality
Sir: Your correspondent Dr J. Stanford Aston (Letters, 16 July) has misunderstood me. Of course there is a need to discuss in a biography the nature of a man's sexuality in order to understand him. The point I was making is that, by now, the facts of T. E. Lawrence's homosexuality and masochism are so well established that further blowby-blow and lash-by-lash accounts are no longer necessary.
However, flagellation has a perennial fascination for the British. Desmond Stewart, author of the Lawrence biography in question, wrote a life of Herzel not so long ago. Herzel was a far more important figure in the history of our times than Lawrence; little has been written about him in English; Mr Stewart dealt with his subject admirably. Yet, whereas practically 'every newspaper gave Lawrence a lead review, Herzel was either totally ignored or relegated to two or three hundred words. Francis King
19 Gordon Place, London W8
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