"Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it."
— P.J. O'Rourke
History & Biography
At War with Waugh: The True Story of Scoop.
London: Macmillan, 2003. [Literary Biography] SIGNED FIRST EDITION. Octavo (21 x 14cm), pp.[4]; 134; [6]. With four double-sided black and white photographic plates. SIGNED by the author in blue ink to title page. Publisher's burgundy cloth with gilt titles to spine. With the illustrated dust-jacket priced at £12.99. A fine..... More
Les Peuples De L'Orient Mediterraneen.
Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1948, 1952. Third Edition. Two vols. Octavo. Bound by Bayntun in recent green half morocco over green cloth boards, with raised bands and gilt titles to spine; top edge gilt, marbled endpapers. French language. With Avant-Propos by S. Charlety. Binding shows well, with only minor..... More
The Last Governor: Chris Patten and the Handover of Hong Kong.
London: Little, Brown, and Company, 1997. [Politics] SIGNED FIRST EDITION, Ex Libris Lord Moynihan. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.xvi; 461; [3]. With three suites of four double-sided photographic plates. Publisher's red cloth lettered in gilt to spine. With the photographic dust-jacket priced at £22.50. Bookplate detailing provenance to flyleaf. Jacket..... More
Travels In North-Western Arabia and Nejd.
Published for the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society by Edward Stanford, 1884. [Arabia] FIRST PUBLISHED APPEARANCE of Doughty's own account of his travels in Arabia, read at the evening meeting of the RGS, November 26th 1883. Pp.381-408, Extracted from the above Proceedings, with large fold-out map printed in colour..... More
Familiar Letters on a Variety of Important and Interesting Subjects, from Lady Hariet Morley, and Others.
London: Printed for W. Strahan, and T. Caddel, 1773. RARE FIRST EDITION. Octavo, pp.viii; [4]; 460 (final page misprinted as 560, as usual). In contemporary full tree calf with gilt titles to red label on spine. Marbled endpapers. pp.227-230 beginning to come loose. Black ink ownership inscription to verso of..... More
North from Malaya: Adventure on Five Fronts.
New York, NY: Double and Company, 1953. [South-East Asian geopolitics] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.352. With eight double-sided black and white plates.Maps to endpaper. Publisher's turquoise cloth with blue and white titles to spine. With the dust-jacket illustrated by Rafael Palacios, priced at $3.95. Booksellers ticket to pastedown..... More
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Centenary 1859-1959.
London: John Murray, 1959. [Family history and retrospective]. FIRST EDITION. Quarto (35 x 28cm), pp.[2] 136 [4]. Filled with reproductions of black and white photographs, letters and other clippings. In publisher's red cloth with silver titles to spine and silver family crest to upper board. Textured cream endpapers. With original..... More
The Doyle Diary: The Last Great Conan Doyle Mystery. With a Holmesian Investigation into the Strange and Curious Case of Charles Altamont Doyle.
London: Paddington Press, 1978. FIRST EDITION. Double-width Crown Octavo (19 x 26cm), pp.xxx, 91. In publisher's cream cloth with gilt titles to spine and upper board. End-papers with burgundy marbling effect. With original burgundy dust jacket. Jacket worn and lightly chipped to edges. Light even browning to text-block, as expected..... More
The Story of British Prisoners.
London: The Central Committee for National Patriotic Organisations, no date [May 1915]. [Propaganda] RARE ORIGINAL PAMPHLET. Crown Octavo (21 x 14cm). pp.31; [1] blank. Publisher's brown paper wrappers, titles in black, stapled once, with printed price of one penny to upper. Internally fine, some splitting to spine, a little creasing/folding..... More
The British Campaigns in Europe 1914-1918.
London: Geoffrey Bles, [n.d. 1928]. FIRST EDITION. Demy Octavo. pp. 1024. In publisher's purple cloth, sunned to extremities, titled in gilt to spine. Very good. In a very good example of the scarce dustwrapper, spotted, chipped to spine ends with light edgewear and a closed tear to the upper margin..... More
The German War.
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1914. [Military History] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (18 x 12cm), pp.viii; 152. Publisher's illustrated softcovers printed in red and black. Original price 1 shilling to spine and upper. 5000 copies published December 1914. Contents clean, light blue colour card sunned to tan to spine and upper, minor..... More
The Great Boer War. With Maps.
London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1900. [Military History]. FIRST EDITION. Octavo (21 x 14cm) pp.x; 552; [12], advertisements. Five folding maps, printed in colour. Half dark green morocco with raised bands and gilt titles to spine, cloth sides, edges untrimmed, original spine bound in at rear. Internally clean, one small..... More
Worthies of the World, A Series of Historical and Critical Sketches of the Lives, Actions, and Characters of Great and Eminent Men of all Countries and Times.
London: Ward, Lock and Co., n.d. [c.1880]. [Historical Biographies]. FINELY BOUND. In two volumes. Octavo (25 x 16cm), pp.[4] 416 [2]; pp.417-832 [2]. With frequent in-text wood engraved portraits of notable characters. Contemporary dark green half morocco with raised bands, gilt title to spines and marbled boards. Marbled endpapers; all..... More
The Pipe Book.
London: A. and C. Black Ltd., 1924. [Pipes] FIRST EDITION. Quarto (23 x 18cm), pp.x; 262; [2] publisher's advertisements. Publisher's dark blue cloth, blocked in gilt and in blind to spine and upper. With twenty-eight plates, four in colour. With a clipping of the poem Ode to Tobacco by Lucio..... More
The History and Antiquities of Dartford. With Topographical Notices of the Neighbourhood.
London: John Russell Smith, 1844. [Kent] FIRST EDITION, SUBSCRIBER'S COPY WITH MLS. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.xxvi; [1]; 478; [2]. Modern russet cloth, gilt titles to a red calf label to spine, the binding done by Canterbury Bookbinders. Portrait frontispiece and hand-coloured engraved title page plus fourteen further plates (some..... More
Social Security No. 438-10-1408.
New York, NY: A Milestone Book, Comet Press Books, 1958. [Psychological memoir]. SIGNED FIRST EDITION. Octavo (21 x 14cm), pp.[6] 73 [1]. SIGNED by the author in blue ink to title page, dated 24th November 1959. In publisher's black cloth with gilt titles to spine. Green endpapers. With original cream..... More
Adolf in Blunderland. A Political Parody of Lewis Carroll's Famous Story.
London: Frederick Muller Ltd., 1940. [Satire] REVISED EDITION. Slim Quarto (26 x 19cm), pp.60. Publisher's printed paper covered boards, matching pictorial dust-jacket. Illustrated throughout by Mansbridge. Some offsetting to endpapers, discreet contemporary gift inscription to flyleaf. Boards slightly rubbed to spine ends. Price clipped dust-jacket shows very well, rubbed to..... More
Conjectures on that Mysterious Monument of Ancient Art, Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain; Commencing its History by Jeffery of Monmouth, Bishop of St. Asaph, A.D.1130; And continued in chronological Order by the laborious Researches of the following Eminent Writers in their Attempts to remove the Cloud which veils in Obscurity the History of this Celebrated Temple: viz. Giraldus Cambrensis, Camden, Inigo Jones, Dr. Charlton, Gibbons, Speed, Gibson, Dr. Stukeley, Wood, Rowland, Dr. Smith, Wansey, Dr. Maton, King, and Sir R.C. Hoare. To which are added, a Valuable Fragment of Antiquity Relative to Old Sarum and Stonehenge, by Diodorus, in the Time of Julius Caesar; and a History of the Druids, the supposed Architects of Stonehenge.
Salisbury: Printed and Sold by J. Easton, 1826. [West-Country Topography] ORIGINAL PAMPHLET, the fourteenth edition, with views. Duodecimo in half-sheets (18 x 11cm), pp.82. With a frontispiece wood engraving of the stones, repeated occasionally within the text. Publisher's brown paper covers with titles to front. Lightly browned with some spotting..... More
Miss Eden's Letters.
London: Macmillan, 1919. General Wavell's copy. First Edition. Royal Octavo, pp. xvi, 414, [2], advertisements (predominantly listing military titles). In publisher's blue buckram. Discreet ownership inscription, covers flecked white; spine lettering dulled. A very good copy, which bears the pictorial bookplate of [then Brigadier General] A.P. Wavell, showing a Private..... More
The Heart of the Antarctic. Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition 1907-1909. With an Introduction by Hugh Robert Mill. An Account of the First Journey to the South Magnetic Pole by Professor T.W. Edgeworth David.
London: William Heinemann, 1909. [Polar exploration] FIRST EDITION. Two volumes, quarto (24 x 18cm), pp.xlviii; 372; pp.xvi; 419; [1]. Portrait of E. H. Shackleton as frontispiece to first volume, with portrait of the Northern Party at the South Magnetic Pole to second volume. Both are protected with captioned tissue guards..... More
The Heart of the Antarctic. Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition 1907-1909. With an Introduction by Hugh Robert Mill. An Account of the First Journey to the South Magnetic Pole by Professor T.W. Edgeworth David.
London: William Heinemann, 1909. [Polar exploration] FIRST EDITION. Two volumes, quarto (24 x 18cm), pp.xlviii; 372; pp.xvi; 419; [1]. Portrait of E. H. Shackleton as frontispiece to first volume, with portrait of the Northern Party at the South Magnetic Pole to second volume. Both are protected with captioned tissue guards..... More
The Orchid House. Splendours and Miseries of the Kingdom of Oudh, 1827-1857.
London: Cassell, 1960. [India] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (23 x 15cm), pp.xvi; 216. Publisher's black cloth, gilt titles to spine, dust-jacket designed by Val Biro with printed price of 25/- net. Illustrated with eight double sided black and white plates, one genealogical table, and two maps. Ownership stamp and inscription to..... More
A Thousand Miles up the Nile.
London, George Routledge and Son's Ltd., 1891. [Near-Eastern Travel]. Second Edition/later printing. Octavo (23 x 16cm), pp.xxviii; 499; [1], blank. With over seventy detailed engravings throughout, including frontispiece, all taken from illustrations by the author. Publisher's pictorial mid-blue cloth, gilt, coated yellow endpapers. Contents very clean, dated inscription to flyleaf..... More
Huntsmen Past and Present. Illustrated from contemporary prints and from original watercolour drawings by the Author.
London, Eyre and Spottiswoode, New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929. Quarto, with 21 plates in colour and black and white, pp. [14], 91. Publisher's vellum spine with buckram boards, t.e.g. Fine. SIGNED LIMITED EDITION. Limited Edition of only 150 copies of which this is no.45. More
The Great Famine; Studies in Irish History 1845-52.
Dublin: Browne and Nolan Limited. 1956. First Edition. Octavo, pp. xx, 517. Bound in publisher's red cloth with gilt titles to spine, in striking pictorial dustjacket. With seventeen illustrations and two maps. Some spotting to the endpapers and to the edges, slight bumping to the head and tail caps. Dustwrapper..... More