In December, Lawrence begrudgingly returned to Blighty and immediately felt like a ‘caged coyote’. England seemed ‘dead and dark’ to him, and he felt ‘buried alive…under the yellow air.’ It didn’t help that he immediately caught a cold and was in bed...
He goes on to use a series of deathly images of England. Even describing it as a ‘tomb.’ Clearly his recent experiences of the Day of the Dead fiestas in Mexico were having an impact. Indeed, he would later acknowledge to Robert Mountsier, his former literary agent, that the reason he felt like he was living ‘under a paving-stone of sky’ was ‘probably’ down to ‘the change from brightness of Mexico’ to the greyness of the UK. So heed Lawrence’s words, and get yourself on a warm beach somewhere instead of worrying about putting on the leccy.
These video essays are based on the letters of D.H. Lawrence one hundred years ago and are published monthly as part of the D.H. Lawrence Memory Theatre project.
To see previous Locating Lawrence videos from 1922, click here.
To see previous Locating Lawrence videos from 1923, click here.
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