THE RIDDLE OF THE SANDS: A Record of Secret Service.

UK,12mo HB+protected dw/dj,1st reprint.[Originally and first published UK,Smith,Elder & Co,May 1903,as the British true 1st edn.With this publisher,first published in 1971.It was then reset and published with an added Historical postscript,by this publisher in 1976.This edn is the first reprint of that issue/edn, dated 1978.] VG+/FINE.No owner inscrptn,and no price-clip to protected dw/dj.Bright,crisp,clean,glossy laminated,colour photographic sea-scape illustrated front panel,b/w similar photographic rear panel,white background spine/backstrip,all with black ink lettering; with negligible shelf-wear and creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present.Top edges generally clean, lightly dust-soiled and slightly discoloured - not heavily or excessively though - with some minimal,sporadic and barely perceptible,faint foxing/spotting,fore-edges lightly aged/toned with slightly heavier coloured,sporadic,minimal foxing/spotting; contents bright,tight,clean,solid and sound with no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners - would appear unread.Generally bright and clean,publisher's sharp-cornered,original yellow cloth boards with bright,crisp,blocked black ink lettering to spine/backstrip and b/w Admiralty charts illustrated endpapers.UK,12mo HB+protected dw/dj, 1st reprint,vi-xpp+2 -347pp [paginated] includes author preface, contents list/table,28 (XXVIII) chapters,epilogue,27 assorted b/w contemporary detail from Admiralty charts,maps and b/w photographs interspersed throughout the text and the book and a 6-sections historical postscript by R.M. Bowker.Plus [unpaginated] half-title +title pages,an illustrations list/table,with b/w line sketch of the boat 'Dulcibella' (named after his sister) to recto as a frntis. View my 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die catalogue for other books and suggested reading in it. A unique edition of this classic of small-boat fiction with an exclusive postscript containing the historical facts which lie behind this incomparable sailing story: the best ever written.This edition includes unabridged extracts from the charts actually used aboard Dulcibella; together with 27 illustrations drawn from the past and from the seas which Dulcibelle sailed. Robert Erskine Childers (b.25/6/1870 - d. 24/11/22.),soldier, journalist,politician, novelist.Erskine Childers wrote 'The Riddle of the Sands' after returning home wounded from the Boer War,where he fought for the British.Based on his own sailing trips with his brother Henry along the German coast,it predicted war with Germany and called for British preparedness.Speculation about which of Childers's friends was the model for "Carruthers" in the novel and it seems that he is based not on his brother Henry Childers,but on yachting enthusiast Walter Runciman; "Davies",is Childers himself. An Irish nationalist who smuggled guns to Ireland in his sailing yacht Asgard. He was executed by the authorities of the nascent Irish Free State during the Irish Civil War.
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