Croft-Cooke (Rupert) Seven Thunders

London, Macmillan, 1956.

First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, priced 12s6d.

An attractively jacketed edition of this romantic thriller set in wartime Marseilles in 1943. A 1957 British film of the same name was made from the novel, directed by Hugo Fregonese and starring Stephen Boyd and James Robertson Justice. The biographical context of Croft-Cooke’s life adds another dimension: he had been imprisoned in 1953 for homosexual offences and, on release, moved abroad; after his release from prison in 1954, Croft-Cooke lived until 1968 in Morocco, fearing continued persecution in Britain for homosexuality. Seven Thunders was written during this self-imposed exile.