A Romance of Marvel and Mystery
London, "Review of Reviews" Office, [1900].

The Masterpiece Library. 1. Edited by W. Stead. [bound in Hicklings' Almanack Handbook of Norfolk 1896] 8vo. Original printed red wrappers.

Stead's rare abridged edition of Haggard's gothic lost kingdom narrative set in the African interior, here intriguingly bound at the end of Hicklings' Norfolk Almanack for 1896. Stead was a pioneering investigative journalist and crusading newspaper editor, considered to be one of the most famous Englishmen to die in the sinking of the Titanic at the time. He launched the Masterpiece Library of Penny Popular Novels in 1893 and it eventually ran to about 100 novels. It was touted as 'the most efficient agency that has yet been devised for making our best literature familiar to the mass of the nation.' Punch dubbed the series "Penny Steadfuls". The novels were abridged into 30,000 to 40,000 words from novels which were originally six or eight times as long. They were, however, hugely popular with the much enlarged reading public of the time. She for example sold 500,000 copies in Stead's abridgement.

London, Newnes, 1938-39.

3 issues (complete). Large 8vo. Original pictorial stapled wrappers.

Published by George Newnes Ltd, which paid respectable rates and obtained good-quality material, these three issues comprise a complete run of the magazine Fantasy, edited by T Stanhope Sprigg. The short-lived periodical included stories by significant authors such as John Wyndham, Eric Frank Russell and John Russell Fearn. John Beynon was one of the pseudonyms used by John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris (1903–1969), the British science fiction writer best known for The Day of the Triffids, The Kraken Wakes and The Midwich Cuckoos.

London, Barrie & Rockliff, 1965.

First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.

A novel chronicling a homosexual relationship, published under the pseudonym Neville Jackson by Gerald Marcus Glaskin (1923–2000), a Perth-born Australian author; it is recognised as the first overtly gay Australian novel, and was banned in Australia for over a year after publication despite remaining in print in Britain for twenty years.

A Grotesque Romance
London, C. Arthur Pearson, [c.1903/4].

'Cheap edition'. 8vo. Original yellow pictorial wrappers printed in red, priced 6'.

Originally published as a serial in Pearson's Weekly in 1897, then in book form the same year, this is a relatively rare edition of Wells' sci-fi classic, made more so by the presence of the fragile original wrappers.

London, Faber & Faber, 1971.

First edition, first impression. Signed by the author on the title-page and again on promotional bookplate. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.

The fourth novel in P.D. James's Adam Dalgliesh series, in which Chief Superintendent Dalgliesh is called in to investigate the deaths of two student nurses at the hospital nursing school of Nightingale House. The novel earned an Edgar Award and a Silver Dagger, and is widely regarded as James's breakthrough into the international market.

London, Andre Deutsch, 1965.

First edition. 8vo. Original brown boards. Dust-jacket, priced 21s.

The first of only three novels by the Nigerian playwright, novelist and Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka, set in the 1960s, in post-independence and pre-civil war Nigeria, mainly in Lagos. Professor Soyinka recently celebrated his 90th birthday and a host of events were staged around the world to commemorate the occasion including the release of two documentaries and a feature film centred around his work and life.

London, Selwyn & Blount, 1926.

First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.

A relatively obscure title, seemingly involving a love triangle in bohemian London.

...with a preface by Field-Marshal Sir George F. Milne
London, Heath Cranton, 1930.

First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.

A memoir of the Macedonian Campaign of the First World War, prefaced by Field-Marshal Sir George Milne, who commanded British forces in the Salonika theatre.

London, Constable, 1912.

First edition, first impression. Inscribed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 10/6.

A travel narrative of a journey through the Carpathian mountain region, of interest as a pre-First World War account of a part of Central Europe that would soon be radically transformed.

1944 [-] 1945 Exercise Eskimo "Dry Cold".
Ottawa, Department of National Defence, 1945.

Vol.I & II (only, of 3), 8vo. Original pictorial cloth.

Two volumes of rare military technical reports documenting Exercise Eskimo, a significant joint winter warfare field trial conducted in northern Canada during the final stages of World War II. Involving approximately 1,750 personnel from the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force, the exercise was designed to test the impact of sub-Arctic winter conditions on combat efficiency and military equipment across a wide range of operational areas — from clothing, rations, and the army postal service to tanks and heavy machinery. The volumes compile core observations, technical data, prototype equipment evaluations, and formal recommendations for future winter operations, and are illustrated with photographs throughout. One volume includes five large fold-out maps in rear pockets covering the Advance, Withdrawal, Lines of Communication Operations, Air Operations, and Winter Climatic Zones.

London, Chapman & Hall, '1878' (manually added in ink).

'New Edition'. 8vo. Full green calf, gilt roll borders with cornerpieces to covers, spine elaborate gilt compartments with contrasting leather title label.

Samuel Lover (1797–1868) was an Irish songwriter, composer, novelist, and portrait painter, chiefly in miniatures. He first published Legends and Stories of Ireland in 1832, illustrated by himself, drawing on his knowledge of rural Ireland, its customs and characters. A fine binding.

London, Jarrolds, December 1932.

First UK edition, second impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6.

J.H. Wallis (1885–1958) was an American writer who produced a number of mysteries during the 1930s, several of which appeared in UK editions through Jarrolds.