LONDON.- A valuable collection of books by T. E Lawrence, including a rare first edition of his controversial work, The Mint, goes under the hammer at Bonhams Fine Books, Maps and Manuscripts sale in London on 27 March. In total, the collection could make over £55,000. Each volume is being sold separately. The Mint is Lawrence’s account of life in the RAF during the early 1920s. He began taking notes for the project soon after enlisting in August 1922 under the assumed name of John Hume Ross. His subterfuge was discovered and he was dismissed the following year although he was permitted to rejoin, in his own name, in 1925. He worked up his initial notes into a draft book which he sent to the literary editor Edward Garnett who showed it to Air Marshall Trenchard, often known as the ‘Father of the RAF’. At Trenchard’s request, Lawrence promised not to publish the book