War, Invasion & Spy
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1933.
First edition. 8vo. Original light blue cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
Ronald Standish of the Secret Service steps up to assist Bulldog Drummond in this attractive first edition.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1933.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
The first collection of stories focused on Ronald Standish of the Secret Service, by the creator of Bulldog Drummond.
War, Invasion & Spy
‘Taffrail’ (Captain Taprell Dorling, D.S.O., R.N.) The Man from Scapa Flow
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1933.
First edition. 8vo. Original near black cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
Nautical fiction by an author with first hand experience of naval service. Includes an evocative account of a journey by sleeper train to the Orkney Islands in the period just before the Second World War.
War, Invasion & Spy
‘Taffrail’ (Captain Taprell Dorling, D.S.O., R.N.) The Shetland Plan
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1939.
First edition. 8vo. Original dark blue cloth lettered in white. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
Nice Bip Pares jacket artwork on this thriller title, in which global espionage impinges upon the life of Shetlanders.
War, Invasion & Spy
Chatto & Windus, London, 1929 first edition
War, Invasion & Spy
Armstrong (Anthony) and Bruce Graeme. When the Bells Rang, A Tale of What Might Have Been.
First edition.
London, Harrap, 1943.
The authors imagine the consequences of a Nazi invasion ultimately defeated. A rare title listed in Bleiler but not in Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy.
War, Invasion & Spy
First UK edition, Faber, 1936. Hans Schindler Bellamy (1901-1982) was a populariser of the unorthodox "Glazial-Kosmogonie" or "World Ice Theory" of the Austrian cosmologist Hans Hörbiger. Unfortunately, following his death his theories were embraced by the German far right and incorporated into National Socialism as a rejection of "Jewish" science. In this volume Bellamy describes Hoerbiger's theory in detail, and its application to world myths, and his subsequent books develop the theory in light of the Bible, the Atlantis myth, and the Tiahuanaco ruins.
War, Invasion & Spy
First edition.
London, Paladin Press, 1951.
A novel set in the ruins of post war Berlin in which a war weary population live in cellars beneath the rubble of their devastated homes. Featuring the Wesen family, it provides a vivid depiction of the struggle between the Communists and the Free Democracy of the West for the possession of a bewildered people.
Rare in jacket. No copies online at time of listing.
![L.G. Blochman, Midnight Sailing, first UK edition, [1939]](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/84616-300x300.jpg)
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Collins Crime Club, [1939].
First UK edition. Ex-Library. 8vo. Original burgundy cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7s6d.
Cool jacket artwork, depicting a man with a red briefcase hastening up some steps with the number '9', but not the story of a Chancellor of the Exchequer in panic, instead a departure from the crime fiction Blochman was more well-known for, into the murky world of espionage.
Detective Fiction
(A Detective-Inspector McCarthy Yarn). First Edition. Wright & Brown, n.d. [c.1941].
War, Invasion & Spy
First edition.
London, Grant Richards, 1915.
Accounts of trench warfare on the Western Front during WW1. Uncommon in the dust jacket especially one as good as this.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Collins Crime Club, 1951.
First edition. 8vo. Original dark orange cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8/6.
A good first edition of this tale of international intrigue and deadly peril.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1935.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. 8pp. advertisements. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
A very good first edition, first impression of this uncommon spy novel by G.Davison, part of a series that began in 1931 with The Man with the Twisted Face.
War, Invasion & Spy
First edition
London, Putnam, 1933.
Signed and inscribed by the author one month after publication (March 1933). A Hubin-listed secret service adventure set in London and India.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Robert Hale, 1952 [1953].
First UK edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 9/6.
Good first UK edition of this tale of romance and espionage, 'a breath-taking romance loaded with the dynamite of military secrets and international intrigue.' (jacket blurb)
War, Invasion & Spy
First edition, first impression. London, Jonathan Cape, 1959. The seventh James Bond title.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1969.
First edition. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
A very good first edition of the first of Fraser's Flashman titles, riffing on the character as first introduced in Tom Browne's School Days. The jacket spine is notorious for fading, but this is better than some.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Michael Joseph, 1945.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
A very good first UK edition of aviator Ernest Gann's exciting, realistic aeronautic adventure set in the far north of Canada.
War, Invasion & Spy
Written by himself. Foreword by Field-Marshal Earl Haig.
London, John Murray, 1924
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 15/-.
A scarce work in the original dust-jacket; an impressive autobiographical study by a man of equally impressive military standing, with a career spanning almost 35 years and seeing action in India, Africa and Sudan, as well as service in New Zealand and Cyprus. The foreword is by Field-Marshal Douglas Haig, a divisive figure in military history, garnering the unfavourable, and possibly unfair, moniker 'The Butcher of the Somme' for his strategic role in WW1.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Heinemann, 1958.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 15s.
A very good first edition of Greene's blackly comic espionage thriller, set amid the vice and squalor of pre-revolutionary Havana.
War, Invasion & Spy
First edition.
London, Heinemann, 1939
Basis of the 1945 film starring Lauren Bacall and Peter Lorre.
War, Invasion & Spy
First edition.
London. Heinemann, 1939
The basis for the 1945 film Confidential Agent, starring Charles Boyer, Lauren Bacall, Katina Paxinou and Peter Lorre. In the book, the nationality of the agent is not stated; in the film, he is Spanish.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Wishart, 1934.
First UK edition. Signed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
The author's first novel, originally banned by the Nazis.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Chatto & Windus, 1939.
First edition, cut signature of author affixed to front free endpaper. 8vo. Title printed in red & black within ruled border. Original purple cloth, spine lettered in silver. Lacking dust-jacket.
The first edition of the Bristol-born Household's most famous work, a classic of thriller fiction, with (an admittedly unnamed) Hitler firmly in the author's sights.
War, Invasion & Spy
First edition, Blackwood, 1909. Author’s presentation copy to Dame Helen Balfour Paul, a member of the Scottish aristocracy whose bookplate also adorns the front endpapers. The book is a collection of short stories some with both criminous content. Rare. Sir Christopher Nicholson Johnston (Lord Sands) was a member of the Scottish political elite and was briefly an MP during World War One. He was an expert on Church Law and represented the Church of Scotland on many occasions.
Detective Fiction
Featuring the Dormouse. First UK edition. Robert Hale Ltd, 1943. A 'Dormouse' thriller.
War, Invasion & Spy
First edition.
London. Herbert Jenkins, 1940
Spectacular front panel artwork typical of Herbert Jenkins wrappers of that era. None of this writer's work was published in America and in my experience all of the
UK first editions are difficult to find in jackets.
War, Invasion & Spy
New York, William Sloane, 1957.
First US edition, first printing, inscribed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original cloth-backed boards. Dust-jacket, priced $3.50.
A great inscribed first US edition of the book that would become one of the most well-loved of the British war films (1958), starring John Mills. The inscription on the title-page reads, 'For "The Principal" To commemorate his 80th birthday and in hopes he will survive to see at least twenty more books published - Kipper - August 5th 1958' ('Kipper' being the author's nickname among friends).
War, Invasion & Spy
The technique of silent approach: high explosives: panic
London, Routledge, 1938.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6.
An examination of air raid precautions (ARP) taken from a psychological perspective - uncommon.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, John Hamilton, [1938].
First edition. 2pp. advertisements for the 'Ace Series'. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, dated 3s.6d.
'In a tiny plane, far above the Sahara, Michael Wright directs the operations of Doctor Oberlin's mighty fleet of bombers as it flies northward to encompass the destruction of Europe.' (jacket blurb)
War, Invasion & Spy
First edition.
London. Hutchinson, [1940]
Part of the ‘First Novel’ series. Hutchinson’s First Novel Library would go on to publish a total of 139 titles in the series before ending in 1951, comprising first novels, often by authors using a pseudonym.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1939.
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
The name's Bond...Christopher Bond... this Pre-James Bond is also caught up in the murky world of espionage. An attractive dust-jacket to boot.
War, Invasion & Spy
A Story of Modern Secret Service
London, Jarrolds, 1938.
First edition. 8vo. Original oatmeal cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
Attractive first edition of this autobiographical work by the genuine female spy Marthe Mathilde McKenna née Cnockaert, awarded British, French and Belgian honours for gallantry for her espionage work, and subject of the 1933 film I was a Spy.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Harrap, 1939. First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, price from inside flap removed by clumsy tear. An uncommon dust-jacket by jacket legend Youngman Carter, in better condition than normally found.
War, Invasion & Spy
First edition. London & Glasgow, Blackie & Son Limited, [1932] An attractive early jacketed work on aviation, in the rare dust-jacket.by Leslie Carr (more well-known perhaps for his depictions of locomotives).
War, Invasion & Spy
House Agent
London, Mills & Boon, 1935.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth blocked in black. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6.
From a publishing POV at the minimum, Evans is an interesting author, one of a select few that canny publishers Mills & Boon convinced to adopt at least one pen-name to increase their "representability" via libraries such as Boots and W.H. Smith, who would normally only represent no more than two books by any author a year. Evans wrote over 120 novels for Mills & Boon, at a fairly high standard, under her own name and her "nom de guerres".