The Needle-Watcher by Richard Blaker - 1932: The Will Adams Story, British Samurai

It is black boards with bright and clear yellow lettering, 501 pages

It is ex-library, so those marks you see on the cover are the glue from the library cover. That will come off.

The call letters on the inside front cover can be covered with a bookplate. The name of the library is stamped on the title page; you could cover that.

The rest of the book is in perfect condition. It cannot have been borrowed much—there are no marks inside it. The spine is in perfect condition. Once you remove the glue traces, the cover will be pristine.

This story was published in1932 to great acclaim, and it remains a much-loved book.

It is the true story of Will Adams, an Englishman who traveled to Japan in the early 17th century. At the time, Japan was a hostile land, but Adams was taken into favour by the first Tokugawa shogun, Ieyasu, and his work there led him to be recognized as the founder of the Japanese navy. Adams was among the most colourful and daring of Britain's maritime traders and this is a tale of strange adventures, which also depicts the Japanese mind in the most interesting manner. Adams died in Japan in 1620; he is still remembered there by an annual ceremony. There are memorials to him in Ito, and in Gillingham, Kent.

Richard Blaker (1893-1940) is remembered as a 'war writer', who published 6 books and many short stories. He had served in the Royal Artillery (at the Somme and in Palestine) and was invalided home with shell-shock. He was among the officers who convalesced at Arnold Bennett's house in Essex; Bennett encouraged him to write.