and other sketches in war-time
London etc., Humphrey Milford, 1918.

First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Printed dust-jacket.

A collection of short stories, many of a supernatural nature. De Montmorency's background was in law, but he was a prolific writer, "much of his published work is of a somewhat miscellaneous and transient character. He was one of the principal contributors to the series of monographs published by the Society of Comparative Legislation under the title of Great Jurists of the World, and he wrote the section 'Sea-policy and the Alabama claims' in the Cambridge History of British Foreign Policy, volume 3 (1923). Selections of the articles which he contributed to The Times and the Contemporary Review were published under the titles of The Never-Ending Road (1916), The White Riders (1918), and The Admiral's Chair (1921)." (ODNB)

London, HarperCollins/Flamingo, 1997. Uncorrected proof copy. Signed by the author on title-page. 8vo. Original pictorial wrappers. A near fine signed proof edition of this Booker Prize winning novel, the author's first published book.

A Prophetic Novel
London, Grayson & Grayson, 1934.

First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth lettered in red.

A prophetic novel indeed, anticipating Churchill's anxiety at the potential readiness of Germany to have at its disposal long-range, high-speed bomber planes. The work was inspired by Stanley Baldwin's 1932 speech to the House of Commons in which he described the threat aerial bombing represented, and suggested that preemptive offence would be the only defence in such circumstances.

London, Hurst & Blackett, 1925.

First edition. Clipped autograph inscription from the author laid onto title-page. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.

Note from the author pasted onto title-page, wishing warmest greetings to a friend.

London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1931.

First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 3/6.

An attractive Hodder & Stoughton first edition, in classic Hastain jacket.

London, Sampson Low, Marston, 1949.

First edition. 8vo. 1p. advertisement. Original faux-morocco red cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 8s. 6d.

Vintage Morland, packed with thrills and told with easy humour.

London, Robert Holden, 1926.

First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.

A second collection of weird tales by the author of The Street of Queer Houses. Uncommon, especially in the original dust-jacket.

London, Jonathan Cape, 1956.

First edition. 8vo. Original green boards. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 13s.6d.

A very good first edition of this murder mystery, featuring series character Miss Hogg and her faithful chum Milly Brown, and a lost manuscript by Emily Brontë... Austin Lee was a prolific author, also writing under the pseudonyms John Austwick and Julian Callender.

London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1960.

First UK edition. 8vo. Original burgundy boards. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.

Famous post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel by American author Walter M. Miller Jr., first published in 1959. A Catholic monastery preserves the remnants of humanities scientific knowledge following a nuclear holocaust. Scarce.

...together with literary contributions by E. Gordon Craig, Charles B. Cochran and Nigel Playfair.
[London], The Studio, 1927.

Large 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket.

Important work from a key period in the history of British Theatre, notable for the contributions by one of the epoch's leading lights, E. Gordon Craig.

London, Michael Joseph, 1954.

First edition. 8vo. Original black boards. Dust-jacket, priced 10s6d.

The 27th title in Mitchell's long-running series featuring the psychoanalyst and amateur sleuth Mrs Bradley.

London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1934.

First edition. 8vo. Original pale blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.

A collection of nine short stories that explore various moral and ethical dilemmas faced by different characters in different settings and situations, from the author of The Four Feathers and Fire Over England.

Are They Human?
London, Allen & Unwin, 1939.

First edition. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.

Despite the worrying title, actually a defence of the Jewish people at the time of mounting anti-semitism in Europe, the title itself a play on another '30s publication, The English: are they Human by G.J. Renier.

London, Longmans, Green and Co., 1938.

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

'Takes us from Australia to Hollywood and provides us with plenty of exciting and hilarious incident in addition to a romance that has a proper ending.'

London, Hodder & Stoughton, [1920s].

Early Printing. Small 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 3/6.

An attractively jacketed 'yellowback" of this Edgar Wallace work from his Detective Sgt Elk series, originally published in 1926.

London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1926.

First edtion, 'file copy'. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.

"The Alps - an ex-spy - and Edris!"

An uncommon 'twenties title to find in the original jacket, this the publisher's file copy.

A Story of Crime
[London], Collins Detective Story Club, n.d. [c.1930].

First edition thus. Small 8vo. Original near-black leather over limp boards, blocked in gilt.

A disappearing corpse, a supernatural theory, and a genuinely shocking finale... This title was originally published in 1907 as 2835 Mayfair, before being brought back to life for Collins' Detective Story Club, one of the first 12 classic crime books chosen for the series.

London, Chapman & Hall, 1955.

First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 12s.6.

A very good first edition of the second book in Waughs' Sword of Honour trilogy, loosed derived from the author's own wartime experiences.

London, Hodder & Stoughton, [1926].

First edition. 8vo. 8pp. advertisements at end. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 7/6.

A rare book in the original first issue dust-jacket, with striking artwork.

London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1926.

Early printing. Small 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 3/6.

A mysterious stalker is revealed to be a detective protecting the interests of a young orphan from the machinations of a sinister countess...

Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes.
London, John Murray, 1917

First edition. 8vo. 6pp. advertisements. Original cloth.

A collection of previously published Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, including the titular short story, 'His Last Bow: The War Service of Sherlock Holmes'.

London, Victor Gollancz, 1939

First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.

A superb first edition of one of this prolific author's crime/thriller titles.

The novel of the play by Arnold Ridley and Bernard Merivale
London, Selwyn & Blount, 1928.

First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.

Striking jacket artwork adorns this tale of railway sabotage.

London, Duckworth, 1938.

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

...a critical and sympathetic picture of modern life and its social problems...is it better to escape, or to play one's part? (jacket)

London, Hutchinson, 1974.

First edition, second impression. 8vo. Original blue boards. Dust-jacket, price-clipped, with publisher's promotional bellyband.

The second printing of the joint Booker Prize Winner (with The Conservationist, by Nadine Gordimer) in 1974.

London, Cassell, 1948.

First UK edition. Small 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.

A nice example of this Perry Mason title; to aid her sick boyfriend, Sally Madison tries to swindle wealthy Harrington Faulkner with a cure for his sickly exotic fish. However, things take a dark turn when the fish disappear and Faulkner is found dead.

London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1937.

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

Hubin-listed detective fiction title, scarce in the original dust-jacket.

his travels and perils
London, S.O. Beeton, n.d. [1865/66].

First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth, gilt tooled spine.

The rare true first edition in book form of this adventure tale, serialised previously in Boys Own in 1865. Ward Lock took over Beeton in 1866 and republished the title that year under their own imprint.

London, The National Magazine Co. Ltd, 1946.

True first edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.

A scarce first edition of this collection of the quirky and imaginative short stories by the Famous Five and Noddy creator.

and other Naval Stories. As originally Told to the Marines by one of themselves.
Portsmouth, Charpentier, 1896.

True first edition. 8vo. Original purple cloth stamped in gilt.

A rare collection of nautical tales, many of a weird and supernatural bent. The collection is referenced in Bleiler's Guide to Supernatural Fiction, the main entry given to the 1899 Simpkin, Marshall edition, but noting 'There is an earlier edition of this book (Charpentier; Portsmouth, England 1896), which has not been seen.'

William Price Drury (1861-1949) was himself in the Royal Marines, as was the previous owner of this copy, General Sir Lewis Stratford Tollemache Halliday.

London, Newnes, 1945.

First edition. 8vo. Original pale green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.

The third of the author's 'Lone Pine' series, set in Shropshire.

London, Hammond, Hammond, 1947 [1948].

First edition. 8vo. Original turquoise cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 8s6d.

The first book to feature series character Detective Inspector Jimmy Brent, investigating the murder of a successful auctioneer and estate agent.

London, Nash & Grayson, 1930.

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

A historical novel, set against the backdrop of the English Civil War, and it explores themes of love, loss, and redemption. Plus great dust-jacket.

London, Hutchinson, 1941.

First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 9/6.

The second of three novels by Wheatley featuring Julian Day.

London, Michael Joseph, 1951.

First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 9s6d.

The first edition of the author's second book, a collection of stories set in South Africa. One of the author's defining works.

First edition, Lovat Dickinson, 1937. A scarce memoir of the Spanish Civil War from the American-born novelist, Helen Nicholson (Baroness de Zglinitzki), who was caught up in the conflict while visiting her daughter and son-in-law in Granada. Nicholson and her family were unabashedly supportive of Franco and the Nationalist. Rare in this condition and with the added association of being inscribed by the author’s daughter in the year of publication

London, Cobden-Sanderson, 1937.

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

Contributing to the lost city of Atlantis mythos, this work also includes an extensive Atlantean bibliography.

London, Heinemann, 1936.

First edition. 8vo. Original green boards. Dust-jacket.

A good first edition of Dunsany's classic humorous novel about an alcohol-loving clergyman who thinks he is the reincarnation of a dog...the jacket artwork says it all.

London & Boston, John Lane; Roberts Bros, 1895.

First edition. 8vo. Original purple decorative cloth.

One of the most well-known and collectable of Lane's important 'Keynotes' series, this being the seventh in the series, and the first of two appearances therein for the "King of Redonda" (the other being his influential work Shapes in the Fire, number XXIX). Aubrey Beardsley provided the title-page/cover designs and most if not all of the monogram key devices for the series up until vol.XXIII. Prince Zaleski was Shiel's first published work, drawing inspiration in part from the detective tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and comprising three mysteries: "The Race of Orven", "The Stone of the Edmundsbury Monks", and "The S.S.", each to be solved by the eponymous Zaleski, an eccentric Russian nobleman living in exile in a derelict Welsh abbey.

London, Robert Hale, 1972.

First UK edition. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.

Travis McGee experiences the rough side of Southern hospitality...

London, Philip Allan, 1924.

First edition. 8vo. Device to title. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 3/6.

A strange and occasionally beautiful book...rather a dangerous study in the emotion of sex... (The Referee). Rare, especially in the jacket.

London, Constable, 1931.

First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.

Tales of Chinatown and Limehouse: "horrible, ironical, whimsically aloof"

New York, Frederick A. Stokes, February, 1910.

Second edition. 8vo. Original red pictorial cloth.

The second edition of this weird sci-fi tale of Egyptologists and suspended animation, published within one month of the first edition. Scarce.

London, Grant & Murray, 1932.

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

One of the rarest books by Scottish journalist, poet and scholar of the occult Lewis Spence, who wrote many books on mythology, folklore and paranormal phenomena. He was also a prolific writer of fiction, especially in the genres of fantasy and horror.

London, Methuen, 1935.

First edition. 8vo. Original green pictorial cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 5s.

An uncommon early work by Enid Blyton, which focuses on the sorts of real animals you may find on Britain's waysides across a collection of stories. Distinctly uncommon in the jacket.

London, Hodder & Stoughton, [1925].

First UK edition, first printing. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7'6.

An excellent first UK edition of this collection of nine stories by American writer Struthers Burt, author of the non-fiction, intriguingly entitled account The Diary of a Dude Wrangler (1924). Burt's papers are housed at Princeton University.

London, Herbert Jenkins, 1940.

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

A great first edition of this tale of romance, dance and dangerous rivalry. Exotic dancing seems to be something of a theme with this author, who also wrote Orient Pearls, The Slave Market and A Dancer of India. Excellent jacket artwork.

Prefatory Note by Lord David Cecil
London, Dent, 1952.

First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 10s6d.

An uncommon collection of weird tales, written by an ordained priest no less.

London, Hurst & Blackett, 1918.

First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 5/ and stating '20th thousand'.

A later title, but a characteristically passionate & emotive novel by the author of the notorious The Quick or the Dead? (1888). Scarce in such an early issue dust-jacket.

First edition.
London, Putnam, 1936
A very elusive political satire in which a Scottish shirt maker - Andrew McAndrew - corners the market for political shirts. In the novel the author satirises the symbolic power of the shirt with garments whose actual colour imbue the wearer with a political attitude. What’s not to like about a novel that pokes fun at Oswald Mosley’s Fascist Blackshirt movement.

London, Ward Lock, 1935

First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket priced at 3/6 on front flap and also has tell tale 3 digits on spine indicating a slightly later issue.

Hubin listed title featuring the author's regular detective Insepctor Mclean and his rather fuller-witted assistant Sergeant Brook

London, Hamish Hamilton, 1983.

First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced £7.95.

The famous ghost story that inspired film, television, stage and audio adaptations. Scary stuff.

London, Faber, 1945.

First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth. dust-jacket, 9s6d.

An uncommon anthology of ghost tales published by Faber, including authors such as Wilkie Collins and Rudyard Kipling.

London, John Hamilton, [1928].

First edition. 8vo. Original dark red cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.

An uncommon first edition, one of Hamilton's Sundial Editions. James Morgan Walsh (1897-1952) wrote crime thrillers with compelling spy and espionage elements.

and his dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Deads' Town
London, Faber & Faber, 1952.

First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 10s6d.

"This astonishing story…was written in English by a West African, and is in part the product of African folk-lore, stimulated by European inventions." (jacket).

A very good copy of this debut novel by Nigerian author Amos Tutuola, the first African novel published in English outside of Africa, praised by Dylan Thomas as "brief, thronged, grisly and bewitching". Tutuola's works, often drawing upon Yoruba traditions & folklore, were well received in the UK & US (far more than they were originally in his home country), drawing international acclaim and helping open up African writing to a wider audience.

Given the recent prices achieved by this and other similar works by African authors at auction it seems probable that we are experiencing something of a, possibly overdue, reappraisal & resurgence of interest in these writers.

The jacket is designed by the well-known artist & illustrator Barnett Freedman.

London, Gollancz, 1964.

First UK edition. Ex-library. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.

The first UK edition of Simak's sci-fi classic, about a lonely immortal farmer who man & maintains a way station for aliens in Wisconsin, winner of the Hugo prize for that year.

First edition.
London. Columbine Publishing Company, [?1940]
This is the correct first issue wrapper and rare as such. Titles published by this publisher are sought after due to their lurid jacket art of which this is a great example

London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1939.

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

A great first edition of this uncommon 'thirties title in the jacket. The tale of one man's increasingly desperate attempts to avoid mediocrity.

London, Faber & Gwyer, 1926

First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth boards. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 7/6 on spine.

In this Hubin-listed murder story, the author shows the placid life of Minden Town disturbed by a mysterious tragedy. The mystery remains a mystery almost to the very end of the book. A rare and early Faber crime title.

London, Ward Lock & Co., c.1882-84.

Early English edition. 8vo. Publisher's adverts to rear. Original decorative cloth blocked in black & gilt.

This copy dates from sometime between 1882 and 1884 based on the title page. Ward, Lock & Co. did not open an office in New York at 10 Bond Street until June of 1882. In November of 1884 that office moved to 31 Bond Street. The first edition of Stories of the Rhine was published by Ward, Lock & Tyler in 1875, and in addition to stating "Ward, Lock& Tyler" on the title page, it would only have their earlier address of Warwick House, Salisbury Square. Ward, Lock & Tyler became Ward, Lock, & Co, in 1877.

Collection of short stories, set in the late 18th century and in the 19th century, most with a weird element including 'The Buried Treasure' where the treasure of Gontran the Miser is found by supernatural means. All Victorian editions of Erckmann-Chatrian titles are uncommon especially in original cloth.

Boston, Page, 1927.

First edition, first printing. 8vo. Original blue cloth with inset colour illustrations. Dust-jacket, neatly price-clipped.

Smith's third book continuing the Pollyanna series created by Eleanor Porter, who died in 1920. Smith was the first Black teacher in Boston Public Schools.

A Romantic Novel in Honour of the Passing of a Great Race
London, Jonathan Cape, 1933.

First UK edition. 8vo. Original yellow cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 5s.

The first UK edition of Hemingway's first long work, a satirical treatment of pretentious writers; here with an introduction by David Garnett.

New York, Harrison Smith & Robert Haas, 1935.

First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced $2.00.

Aeronautical crime-thriller featuring King's series character Michael Lord, investigating murder aboard a transcontinental flight. An intricate plot combined with "locked room" element, the mystery was praised by The New York Times as "a very thrilling story." Very much in the S.S. Dine vein, and one of only seven genre titles recorded by this author.

The startling story of an English woman who failed to secure common justice from the government of South Africa
London, Trefoil Publishing Company, 1933.

First edition. Signed presentation inscription from the author. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.

Full length inscription by the author on the front inside flap of the jacket, written in November 1932, describing the recipient, one [?]Mrs Jeffreys, as a "shining light" and passing on Christmas greetings.