War, Invasion & Spy
London, New York, Toronto, Oxford University Press, 1941.
First edition. 8vo. Original pictorial orange cloth. First impression, second state dust-jacket, correctly priced 4/- and with 'found' in the first line of blurb on front inside flap, but with the text printed in brown rather than blue.
A rare forties Biggles title - the Air Ministry has allowed Biggles, Algy, Ginger and Smyth to accompany a party of volunteers to help Finland in their struggle against Soviet aggression.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, New York, Toronto, Oxford University Press, 1939.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original pictorial cloth. Second impression dust-jacket, price-clipped.
W.E. Johns drew on the recently concluded Spanish Civil War (1936–39) as his setting, with Biggles operating against a backdrop of the conflict's final stages. It is among the more topically grounded of the pre-war Biggles titles, the Spanish war having provided Johns with a ready-made theatre of aerial intrigue.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
A novel
New York & Toronto, Farrar & Rinehart, 1937.
First edition, first printing. Cut signature of the author to title-page. 8vo. Original blue cloth decorated in silver. Dust-jacket, priced $2.50.
Two college friends visit their former university and find a professor burnt to death in his observatory.
![J.R.R. Tolkien, [The Lord of the Rings], 3 vols, fifth/seventh/fifth impressions respectively, 1956-59.](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/88134-300x300.jpg)
![Alternative view of Tolkien (J.R.R.) [The Lord of the Rings]](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/88134_2-300x300.jpg)
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, George Allen & Unwin, 1956-59.
3 vol., first editions, fifth/seventh/fifth impression respectively. Large 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jackets.
A solid set of early impressions of Tolkien's fantasy masterpiece.
Detective Fiction
London, Hammond, Hammond, 1951.
First edition, first impression. Inscribed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
Author's first book, uncommon, especially thus warmly inscribed.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
A Tale of Alderley
London, Collins, 1960.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
Garner's debut novel, and one of the most important British children's fantasy novels of the 20th century. It marked a decisive move away from the pastoral, whimsical tradition of children's fantasy toward something darker, more rooted in specific landscape and local mythology.
London, Ward, Lock, 1907.
'New Edition'. 8vo. Original gilt-decorated cloth. Dust-jacket.
One of many post-Beeton revised and expanded editions issued by Ward, Lock after they acquired the copyright. Isabella Beeton (1836–1865) died aged 28; the book that bears her name had already gone through numerous transformations by this date.
Non-Fiction
Foreword by Daniel Halévy. Introduction by Edward Crankshaw. Translated from the French by Gerard Hopkins
London, Chatto & Windus, 1951.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
Czapski's account of the years following his release from Soviet captivity, during which he was tasked with investigating the disappearance of thousands of missing Polish officers - ultimately murdered by Stalin's NKVD at Katyn.
Modern Literature
London, Jonathan Cape, 1975.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
Amis's second novel, more controversial and less immediately celebrated than his debut. It was reissued in 1984 under the title Dark Secrets.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, John Lehmann, 1950.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
Set during the Dunkirk evacuation, the novel follows Sergeant Julien Maillat and a small group of French soldiers stranded on the beach, unable to be evacuated with the British forces. It won the 1949 Prix Goncourt, France's most prestigious literary prize.
Modern Literature
London, Heinemann, 1944.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
A quiet, understated wartime love story set on an RAF bomber station in England.
Modern Literature
London, Faber & Faber, 1959.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
An uncommon first edition, notably striking for its Ardizzone jacket.
Detective Fiction
Robinson (B. Fletcher) and J. Malcolm Fraser. The Trial of the Dead.
The strange experience of Dr. Robert Harland
London, Ward, Lock, 1904.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth with inset illustration to upper cover.
Seven thrilling tales by Fletcher & Fraser, the former who had inspired in large part Conan Doyle with the idea for The Hound of the Baskervilles: "This story owes its inception to my friend, Mr. Fletcher Robinson, who has helped me both in the general plot and in the local details." (ACD, in The Strand)
Modern Literature
London, Longmans, Green, 1958.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
A mystery novel set in Kenya during the Mau Mau period, in which a young woman becomes entangled in murder. The novel was published under the pseudonym Mollie Hamilton in the US.
Detective Fiction
London, Robert Hale, 1960.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
Father Joseph Bredder, a Franciscan priest in Los Angeles - formerly a professional boxer and decorated Marine - investigates.
Detective Fiction
London, Chapman & Hall, 1904.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original pictorial cloth.
A collection of adventure stories featuring Don Quebranta Huesos, a fearsome Spanish bandit who operates as a kind of antihero.
![Alternative view of "Trill" [pseud. Harry C. Liebart]. The Sickle Murders](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/88115_2-300x300.jpg)
Detective Fiction
London, Lincoln Williams, 1935.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 3/6.
According to the Bear Alley blog the book is listed in the English Catalogue of Books as having appeared in February 1935 and it was listed under the pen-name "Trill". The publisher Lincoln Williams went into administration in July 1935 so the book probably wasn't reprinted. Trill was a pen name for Harry C. Liebart. Hubin listed.
War, Invasion & Spy
A Tale of the Civil War
London, Heath Cranton, 1933.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
An uncommon title by a relatively obscure publisher.
Non-Fiction
London, Andre Deutsch, 1954.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
Sir Harold Scott (1887–1969) served as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police 1945–53, overseeing Scotland Yard through the difficult immediate postwar period. Accompanied by a 3½ page autograph letter from the author.
Horror & Gothic
London, B.T. Batsford, 1956.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
A non-fiction survey of British haunted houses with illustrations by Felix Kelly, whose atmospheric paintings of country houses and gothic interiors were widely admired.
Modern Literature
London, Duckworth, 1931.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Contemporary half calf on marbled boards.
A novel of dissipated young London life in the early 1930s - parties, meaningless relationships, and a backdrop of social futility, seen through the eyes of Atwater, a minor museum official.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
A Novel
London, Secker & Warburg, 1949.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Green dust-jacket, priced 10s.
A wonderful example of the first edition of Orwell's dystopian classic, benefiting from some skilful, minor restoration to remove a sticker mark from the jacket spine and improving the corners. Although many worthy experts suggest that the red jacket has historically proved to be the scarcer, it is our experience that the green one has proved equally difficult to acquire in recent years - worth noting that of ten jacketed first editions that appeared at auction in 2025, eight were in the red jacket.
Thriller Fiction
London, Sampson Low, Marston & Company, 1897.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original pictorial cloth.
A comic adventure novel in which two young men seek a wealthy man to adopt them so they can marry his ward and niece respectively. First published in French in 1896.
Weird & Supernatural
London, Selwyn & Blount, 1926.
First edition, third impression. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 2/- and stating 'third edition'.
The first volume in Thomson's landmark 'Not at Night' anthology series, which ran to eleven volumes (1925–1937) and introduced British readers to American pulp weird fiction from Weird Tales and similar magazines. The series was highly influential in shaping British taste for supernatural horror and is a cornerstone collection in the history of the genre. This copy is the first edition, third impression with contemporary dust-jacket, which is notably scarce.
Thriller Fiction
London, Sampson Low, Marston & Company, 1900.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original pictorial cloth.
An adventure novel based on the board game 'The Game of the Goose'. "In 1897, the first Baedecker guidebook for the U.S. was published, and Verne used this as the source for his descriptions of the modes of transport, timetables, and geographic descriptions of the numerous places the twelve participants were required to visit in order to claim the prize." (Wikipedia)
Thriller Fiction
London, Sampson Low, Marston & Company, n.d. [1890s].
'New and Cheaper Edition'. 8vo. Original pictorial cloth.
A relatively unknown adventure novel drawing on Verne's interest in exploration and geography.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Blackie & Son, n.d. [?1930s].
Reissue. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
Frederick Sadleir Brereton (1872–1957) was a prolific author of adventure stories for boys, published almost entirely by Blackie.
Modern Literature
London, Longmans, 1960.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, priced 13/6.
Inspired by a visit to the Andamans in the 1930s, when Kaye's friend's father was posted there as Chief Commissioner. Due to the outbreak of World War II, the book didn't get published until 1960.
Modern Literature
London, Sampson Low, Marston, [1945].
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
A gentle, character-driven novel of English provincial life in wartime, in the tradition of E.M. Delafield and E.H. Young.
Detective Fiction
A Murder Mystery
London, Hutchinson, [1930].
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
Inspector Rae Norse investigates the murder of a controversial judge in a Southern American setting where voodoo practices create an atmosphere of menace.
Modern Literature
and other stories
London, Arthur Bonde, [1947].
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
A short story collection by Nigel Morland (born Carl Van Biene) was a British author of many detective and other novels. He also worked as a personal assistant to Edgar Wallace and was a co-founder of the Crime Writers' Association.
American Literature
London, Wm. Collins Sons... by The London Book Co., [1931].
First edition thus. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
A novelisation of the screenplay by Luther Trent for the film of the same name by RKO Radio Pictures, this book was released in the same year.
Modern Literature
London, Gollancz, 1987.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
The author's first novel, based on his experiences as an English teacher in Tokyo.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Rapp & Whiting, 1968.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
A collection of fourteen short mystery stories, all featuring puzzle-driven detection, most of them also incorporating science fiction elements. The stories demonstrate Asimov's long-held view that the mystery and science fiction genres were natural partners.