General Fiction Books

Paul A. Whyles - Second-Hand Books

General Fiction Sorted By Author's Surname - Section B

Bailey, H. C. - The Life Sentence. Macdonald, 1946, 1st. Dr Isabel Cope was bothered. The case of Rosalind Bruce, who suffered from nightmares and a wholly irrational fear of fog, had defied all her efforts to diagnose. But the lady medico had good sense; baffled herself, she did not hesitate to call in an expert to report on Rosalind's mental condition. And the expert in this instance was Mr Fortune. The incomparable Reggie soon made up his mi9nd that Rosalind was being driven to the verge of madness by some subconscious fear, but to find the cause was not so easy. He began to investigate the girl's past history, and learned amongst other interesting things that her mother was serving a life sentence for having poisoned her husband. (flap). 7½" x 4¾", 222pp, red cloth, silvery blocked lettering, hardback. Back-board 'pattchy'; finger-nail splits to edge-of-spine/back-bord (obviously a gripping tale); marks to spine; binding a bit 'cocked'; corners rounded; good reading copy only; with poor (loss, repair to verso of spine head, 'dusty'; heavy edge-wear etc) wrapper, not pric-cut. Reading copy only, not collectible standard.
[Order code:15120 / Price £1.00]

Baily, F. E. - Fleet Street Girl. Modern Publishing, not dated, c1950? Iris Paradine - beautiful, charming and intelligent - followed her father into journalism working as a reporter on the Daily Wire. Because she was intelligent she made good; because she had integrity she won the chance to pull off a scoop; and because she wanted adventure, she herself became news. But the men she met would fall in love with her, and in this engaging story Baily tells with all his customary wit and charm how Iris solved the problem of career versus marriage. (Wrapper flap). 7½" x 4¾", 184pp, red cloth, black blocked spine lettering, hardback. Slight browning to text-block edges, the odd fox spot, very good (no inscriptions, no bumps, NOT ex-library) complete with good (edge-wear/chips/creases/small-tears; 1" tear with scrunging around at foot of front-panel, slightly 'dusty') wrapper; NOT price-cut.
[Order code:14562 / Price £3.00]

Balchin, Nigel - Seen Dimly Before Dawn. Reprint Society, 1964. ... he shifts to a fresh area of human experience ... to the turmoil of adolescence in which emotion outgrows knowledge as disconcertingly as the body its clothing. His central character, a boy of fifteen, falls in love for the first time with a woman of twenty-seven. Crude sexual desire is hopelessly entangled with ideas and preconceptions that he has gathered from the romantic poetyr in which his mind is steeped. The affair is one of half-understood emotion and half-knowledge as yet unclarified by experience: of 'things seen dimly before dawn'. Lighted with humour and compassion, the story moves with a narrative force all the more compelling by contrast with the languid charm of its setting in the Kentish countryside in full summer. (prelim). 7½" x 5", 192pp, quarter blue paper with cream paper sides, hardback. Slightly sunned spine; very good (no inscriptions, no bumps, not ex-library), no wrapper.
[Order code:3394 / Price £1.50]

Balsdon, Dacre - Have A New Master. Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1935, 1st. The characters in this book, together with the school of Hatton, are imaginary. The actionlies in the future [1975?], for obvious reasons. We must allow time for what Sir Percival on the platfrom would call 'The March of Civilization' and Sir Percival in his cups would call 'Progreth'. It has still a long way to go before the world will be ready for many of the characters who have found their way into this flippant story. (Prelim). 7½" x 5", 278pp, red cloth, hardback. Top-edge a little 'dusty', spine sunned, slight edge-foxing, binding a little 'cocked'; externally good plus, internally very good, NO wrapper.
[Order code:3118 / Price £15.00]

Balzac, Honore de - The Devil's Heir and other Tales from Les Contes Drolatiques. John Westerhouse, second edition, 1945. 8¾" x 5½", 188pp plus 13 plates, pinkish-grey cloth, brownish blocked spine lettering, hardback. Stories included are: 'The Devil's Heir', 'The Reproach', 'The Three Clerks of St Nicholas', 'How the Chateau d'Azay came to be Built', 'The Swemon of the Merry Vicar of Meudon', 'The Succubus', 'Despair in Love', 'Concerning a Provost who did not Recognise Things', and 'The Monk Amador'. Illustrated with monochrome drawings by R. A. Brandt. Slightly sunned spine, pencilled fist name on front-free endpaper, near fine c/w very good wrapper that has wear at the head of the spine, a slightly sunned spine, other slight edge wear including a couple of small, closed, tears.
[Order code:8421 / Price £8.00]

Balzac, Honoré de - Little French Masterpieces. G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1904. The Knickerbocker Press. Introduced by Ferdinand Brunetère; translated by George Burnham Ives. Contents: 'The Unknown Masterpiece', 'A Seashore Drama', 'An Episode under the Terror', 'La Grande Bretèche', 'The Sonscript', and 'A Passion in the Desert'. 6½" x 4¼", 276pp plus 1 plate, brown leather?, gold blocked lettering, limpback. Top-edge gilt. Photogravure frontispiece portrait of Balzac. Spine sunned and worn at head and foot, inscription on front-free endpaper, good, no wrapper.
[Order code:11796 / Price £20.00]

Banks, Iain - Complicity. Abacus. Banks, Iain - Complicity. Abacus, 1994 (1st thus). Involvement; connection; liability - Complicity is a stunning exploration of the morality of greed, corruption and violence, venturing fearlessly into the darker recesses of human purpose. (back cover). 314pp paperback. Page-edge browning; slight edge-wear; a few fox spots at the front; very good (no spine creases, no inscriptions, not ex-library).
[Order code:16989 / Price £1.00]

Barrett, Maria - Intimate Lies. Warner, 1998. Two women, one man, and a deception that has nothing to do with love... Jill Turner is devasted wehn her beloved husband Alex is reported missing - a suspected suicide. Holly Grigson's response to her own husband's death is less conventional. She reacts with guilty, shameful relier... Yet both women, strangers until now, greet the next jpiece of news with teh same appalled disbelief. If the evidence can be believed, thay were married to the same man. He can it be? (back cover). 7" x 4¼", 410pp, illustrated card, paperback. Promotional copy. No spine creases, probably unread; slight pag-edge browning; slight edge-wear; very good plus.
[Order code:4790 / Price £1.00]

Baum, Vicki - Berlin Hotel. The Book Club (Foyle's). 1946. The scene is Berlin, the time 1943 ... Within the four walls of Berlin Hotel are characters which owe their inspiration to the grim reality of the presend day: Martin Ritcher, a fugitive from the Gestapo and apostle of freedom; General Arnim von Dahnwitz, the Victor of Kharkov and officer of the old school; his friend Baron von Stetten; Tilli, the bar hostess, who so desperately needed a pair of new shoes; Oberleutnant Kauders, the nerve-shaken young airman; Geoffrey Nichols, the sick and renegade Englishman; Gauleiter Plottke, typical of his breed; and the young and lovely actress Lisa Dorn. And over all hangs the menacing shadow of the Gestapo. ... (wrapper flap). 7½" x 5", 182pp, red cloth, hardback. Top-front corners bumped; very, very slight edge-foxing; very good (no inscriptions, NOT ex-library), solid copy complete with good wrapper that is chipped at the head and foot of spine, has edge and corner wear and a scratch on the front panel.
[Order code:7228 / Price £1.00]

Bawden, Nina - The Birds on the Trees. Longman. Bawden, Nina - The Birds on the Trees. Longman, 1970, 1st. ... explores the predicament of a normal middle-class family attempting to cope sensibly and symp[athetically with a boy who, having been a difficult child, has now in his teens become totally withdrawn and has finally resorted to drugs. Toby, the boy, is intelligent, attractive, gentle; yet, for seemingly inexplicable reasons, he remains unapproachably distant, locked in his own unhappiness. As tome point in his relationship with others, especially with his parents, communication has completely broken down. Whose, and where, has been the failure? It is a situation which generates tension not only within the immediate family, but throughout their circle of friends. Recrimination and indifference, bewilderment, grief and anger are among the reactions of those involved. In the end it is Toby himself who, without help from others, seems to be finding a pathe which promises to lead hime out of his private hell. (Wrapper flap). 8" x 5", 202pp, red cloth, silver blocked spine lettering, hardback. Very, very slightly sunned spine; top-edge very slightly 'dusty'; very, very slight edge-foxing, Amnesty International sticker in top-front corner of front paste-down, very good (no inscriptions, no bumps, NOT ex-library) complete with good only (sunned spine, panels slightly sunned, small ballpoint pen squiggle near head of spine, wear to and round top of spine, edge wear) wrapper, NOT price-cut.
[Order code:14257 / Price £3.00]

Bawden, Nina - Devil by the Sea. J. B. Lippincott, 1st US, 1976. She would keep it a secret, Hilary decided. Even if she did tell her parents about the strange happening on the beach, they probably wouldn't believe her. She had, after all, told lies before, and it was generally agreed that she was a wicked, worthless child whose favorite pastime was making trouble. Still, Hilary was haunted by the image of the shabby old cripple leading little Poppet away toward the marshes. Hilary never saw the little girl again, but almost everywhere she went, she saw the old man. Dotty Jim, the kids called homl; the Devil, said her brother Peregrine. Hilary shuddered with dread whenever he appeared, and yet she felt strangely drawn to him. He was gentle in his own clumsy way - and besides, he said he liked little girls. But now, as the summer drew to a close, cottages boarded up, the beach empty. Hilary felt that somehow it was the end for her too. Lonely and afriad, she knew that wherever she went, he would be there, lurking in the shadows, watching and waiting... (Wrapper flap). 8¾" x 5¼", 228pp, red cloth, gold blocked spine lettering, hardback. Very slightly sunned spine, small (thumb-end size) depression near top-edge of front-board (not reflected in wrapper so probably manufacture 'fault'; won't photograph), slight edge-foxing, very good (no inscriptions, NOT ex-libarary), probably unread, complete with similar wrapper that has a slightly sunned spine and very slight edge-wear.
[Order code:14273 / Price £3.00]

Bawden, Nina - Circles of Deceit. Macmillan, 1987 reprint. ... Elaborate, compelling and beautifully crafted, this moving counterpoint of artistic and emotional deceit.. (Wrapper flap). 8¾" x 5¼", 188pp, grey cloth, gold blocked spine lettering, hardback. Slight page-edge browning, unread, fine (no inscriptions, no bumps, no marks, no damage, NOT ex-library) complete with similar wrapper that has a slightly sunned spine and very slight edge-wear.
[Order code:14274 / Price £3.00]

Bayly, E. Boyd - A New Zealand Courtship and other Work~A~Day Stories. Religious Tract Society (RTS), not dated, 1920s? possibly earlier. The stories are: 'For Honour's Sake', 'A New Zealand Courtship', 'In Search of Conquest', 'Nackie' and 'The Story Behind a Shop'. Unusual New Zealand based fiction. 7½" x 4¾", 224pp, dark green buckram blocked in gold and dark brown, hardback. Sectons 12 and 13 virtually loose; good plus (no inscriptions, no bumps, not ex-library) nice clean copy, no wrapper.
[Order code:7716 / Price £11.00]

Beauman, Sally - The Landscape of Love. Little Brown. Beauman, Sally - The Landscape of Love. Little Brown, 2005, 1st. 9½" x 6", 370pp, grey cloth, black blocked lettering, hardback. Very good plus (no inscriptions, no bumps, not ex-lobrary) complete with very good (slight edge-ear) wrapper, not price-cut.
[Order code:15872 / Price £3.00]

Belloc, Hilaire - Essays of To-day and Yesterday. George G. Harrap. Belloc, Hilaire - Essays of To-day and Yesterday. George G. Harrap, 1926. 7" x 4¾", 62pp, black paper covers with a 2½" x 3" label on front-cover, paperback. Printed on laid paper. Cover detached and taped with black tape down spine (but otherwise little worn); name written in top-front corner of front-free endpaper; the odd fox spot; very good.
[Order code:14898 / Price £1.00]

Bennett, Arnold - The Old Wives' Tale. Dent. 1939 reprint. Everyman's Library No. 919. 7" x 4¼", 518pp, red cloth, gold blocking, hardback. Spine slightly sunned; name written on front-free endpaper; slight edge-foxing; very good minus complete with good (slightly sunned spine, wear/loss to head of spine, edge-wear/tears/chips, 'dusty') wrapper.
[Order code:8429 / Price £2.00]

Benson, E. F. - The House of Defence. Nelson. Not dated, probably '40s. 6¼" x 4", 382pp, brown cloth, hardback. Monochrome frontispiece. Many faults, poor plus, but ok for a reading copy, no wrapper.
[Order code:10341 / Price £1.00]

Benson, E. F. - Daisy's Aunt. Nelson, not dated, reprint. Nelson's Library series. 6½" x 4", 280pp plus frontispiece/title-page double spread, red cloth, hardback. The odd fox spot, good, solid copy, no wrapper.
[Order code:12050 / Price £15.00]

Bentley, Phyllis - A Modern Tragedy. Gollancz, 1st Cheap Edition, February 1935 (4th Imp.). 8" x 5", 454pp, red cloth, hardback. Slight edge-foxing and 'dusty', very good, complete with good ('dusty', sunned spine, edge wear/tears/chips) wrapper.
[Order code:2610 / Price £2.00]

Benzoni, Juliette - Belle Catherine. PAN, 1970, 4th impression. Separated from her lover Arnaud, golden-haired, violet-eyed Catherine seeks him through war-ravaged 15th century France... In constant danger from the English soldiery, threatened by the terrible Black Death, imprisoned in the ghastly castle of the toruter Gilles de Raid, Catherine follows the urgent call of her love to a reunion which brings her a new joy - and a new sorrow... (back cover). 7" x 4¼", 318pp, paperback. Spine creased and concave; back-cover split along spine edge for 1¾" at foot; slight edge-wear; front-corners of back-cover have light creases; spine-edge of back-cover sunned; slight page-edge browning; good (no inscriptions, not ex-library), sound.
[Order code:15099 / Price £0.48]

Berckman, Evelyn - Indecent Exposure. Hamish Hamilton, 1975, 1st. Those voices! all talking and talking to me. And mixed up with them, in the strangest way, was this... this arithmetic. Numbers, adding and subtracting themselves. As if a partition had given way somewhere. Mrs Valeria Tor's mind was deeply disturbed, perhaps bordering on insanity, and yet most of the time she appeared perfectly sane and lucid. But then a curtain seemed to descend, and her entire personality altered. Her son Hugh told his mother's latest companion, Jacintha Cory, that she merely needed taking out of herself. But how could Jacintha explain Mrs Tor's suicidal tendencies? And why did she always suffer a relapse after encountering certain gypsies who must have been living in the neighbourhood? What part did Miss Pargill play, that curious woman lurking upstairs? But above all, for Jacintha, the crucial question was should she trust Hugh or should she trust the solicitor, Hohn Dennison? Before she discovered the answer, whe was to experience a period of sheer terror - and was to be reminded of a strange and distasteful encounter with a sutdent of Schuman's easier piano pieces, whose behaviour belied his respectable exterior. (Wrapper flap). 8" x 5", 232pp, blue cloth, gold blocked spine lettering, hardback. Very, very slightly sunned spine, fine (no bumps, no inscriptions, no marks, no damage, NOT ex-library) complete with very good (slightly sunned spine, slight sunning to parts of panels, slight 'creasing' to foot of back-panel, very slight edge-wear) wrapper, NOT price-cut.
[Order code:14243 / Price £3.00]

Birkett, Lady - Hunting Lays and Hunting Ways. A collection of poetry and prose. John Lane, 1927 cheap edition (1st thus). Stag-hunting, Hare-hunting, Fox-hunting, Scent, Some Famous Runs, The Hunt, Rider and Horse, Bye-ways, The Finish. (Probably not for the PC type). 7½" x 5", 238pp, red cloth, black blocked lettering, hardback. Printed on laid paper. Slightly sunned spine, slight edge-wear, front hinge split but still held quite firmly by webbing, front and back free endpapers removed (I think), name inscription on front paste-down, foxing on endpapers and edges, generally good, internally ok, NO wrapper.
[Order code:2377 / Price £4.00]

Blackmore, R. D. - Lorna Doone. Dent, 1924 reprint, Everyman's Library edition. 7" x 4¼", 576pp, red cloth, hardback. Externally good only, back hinge split but still held by webbing, front hinge weak, internally very good.
[Order code:4169 / Price £1.00]

Blackmore, R. D. - Lorna Doone. Sampson Low, not dated, 1930s, possibly earlier? 7¼" x 4¾", 518pp plus 1 plate, red cloth, hardback. Nice colour frontispiece portrait taken from a painting by Charles E. Brock. Cloth a bit 'patchy'; spine slightly sunned; edge-wear; page-edge browning; externally good, solid, clean copy, no wrapper.
[Order code:6511 / Price £1.00]

Blackmore, R. D. - Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor with, loose, Ty Phoo (Typhoo) Tea Card Promo Leaflet. Bordesley Edition, not dated, c1930? (6th Edition). 7½" x 4¾", 580pp, light-blue cloth, gold blocked spine lettering, hardback. Monochrome frontispiece drawing. With 8pp Ty-Phoo (Typhoo) Tea Card promotional leaflet showing the complete set of 25 cards in colour.Book: Spine sunned; very good (no inscriptions, not ex-library); no wrapper. Promotional Leaflet: Very good plus (staples tarnished but not rusty). Unusual and quite scarce.
[Order code:15111 / Price £20.00]

Blish, James - A Life for the Stars. Faber, 1971, 3rd impression. 8¼" x 5¼", 148pp, blue cloth, white blocked spine lettering, hardback. Bumps to top and bottom edges of boards, slight corner bumps, some marking and sunning to boards, a few edge-fox spots and internal fox spots, sound copy complete with very good wrapper.
[Order code:9458 / Price £2.50]

Boast, Philip - Resurrection. Headline, 1st, 1997. From the last Ice Age to the Industrial Revolution London had at its heart a holy place. A place of worship, of reverence, of violence, of mystery. Five cathedrals were built on its site, four were razed to the ground. Beneath their foundations rested a secret, a legacy whose existence was passed on through generations of women, that could hurt and heal in equal, terrible measure - the lost gospel of Judas Iscariot. ... (flap). 9½" x 6", 378pp, red cloth, hardback. Page-edge browning; very good plus (no inscriptions, no bumps, not ex-library) complete with very good (very slightly sunned spine, very slight edge-wear) wrapper.
[Order code:4255 / Price £2.00]

Boccaccio - The Little Decameron: A Selection from Boccaccio. J. M. Dent, 1923, 1st. Bedside Series. 6¼" x 4¼", 192pp plus 1 plate, full dark-blue leather, gold blocked spine lettering, limpback. Monochrome frontispiece. Spine sunned; usual heavy edge-wear found with this type of leather binding; small loss to head of spine; inscription on verso of front-free endpaper; externally good, internally fine (no wrapper). An excellent introduction to Boccaccio; if you like it you can buy the full version.
[Order code:15264 / Price £2.50]

Bogarde, Dirk - West of Sunset. Penguin, 1984. 7" x 4¼", 248pp, illustrated card, sb. Ex-library, first page removed, o/w very good.
[Order code:4791 / Price £1.50]

Boldrewood, Rolf - Robbery Under Arms: A Story of Life and Adventure in the Bush and in the Goldfields of Australia. OUP, 1963 reprint. 6" x 3¾", 680pp, dark-blue cloth, gold and blind blocking, hardback. Printed on 'India' paper. Slightly sunned spine; couple of slight cover marks; very good (no inscriptions, no bumps, not ex-library) no wrapper.
[Order code:16084 / Price £1.00]

Borchgrave, Arnaud De & Moss, Robert - The Spike. Macdonald Futura paperback, 1981. The sensational novel by two top investigative reportes that exposes the sinister truth of KGB manipulation of the Western media. A story so explosive it can only be told as fiction. (back cover). Paperback format, 478pp. Top-front corner of front cover damaged by removal of some sort of label, with evidence of this label across top, 1½" x 3"; spine has a few spots; creasing to lower-front corner of front-cover; very slight edge-wear; slight page-edge browning; very good minus (no spine creases, no inscriptions, not ex-library).
[Order code:3391 / Price £1.00]

Borrow, George - Lavengro: Scholar, Gypsy, Priest. P. R. Gawthorn. Not dated, c1950? ...is one of the most fascinating open-air books in English literature. It is really an autobiography of George Borrow, who delighted to wander far away from the beaten track, who could ride and box, translate from a buried tongue, and was a lover of many-weathered Nature and of his fellow-men. (flap). 7½" x 4¾", 448pp plus 1 plate, red buckram, gold blocked spine lettering, hardback. Illustrated with a colour frontispiece. Free-endpapers browned where facing paste-downs; slight edge-foxing; very good (no inscriptions, not ex-library) complete with good (worn round the head and foot of spine, edge-wear/tears) wrapper, not price-cut.
[Order code:8385 / Price £4.00]

Boutin, Otto - The Gold Maker. (Nazi Gold Lust). Ace/Stoneshire, 1983. 208pp standard paperback. Very good. Average.
[Order code:6731 / Price £1.00]

Bowling, Harry - Ironmonger's Daughter. Headline. 1990, 1st thus. Ironmonger Street in 1920, with its ugly tenement blocks and tumbledown houses, is one of the most unsightly turnings in Bermondsey; its residents are hardened to the grim poverty of their lives. In the slum block, Jubilee Dwellings, two sisters - attractive, fun-loving Kate Morgan and the happily married Helen Bartlett - give birth to daughters; one is illegitimate, her mother refusing to name the father, the other is disabled. Though their mothers can never be close, Connie and Molly grow up together - playing in the gutters, slipping wway, truants, from school, and at foruteen finding jobs despite the recession that ravages the country. Life may be hard, but with all their Cockney humour and courage they endjoy it, too. And wouuldn't be parted for the world. Until the day Connie gets a new job at the metal factory, Armitage's, and catches the eye of handsome young Robert Armitage. Despite the differences in their backgrounds, and the antagonism that dogs their two families, they are drawn together and are determined to be married. But war intervenes... (back cover). 504pp standard paperback. 5 spine creases; slight corner-curling/edge-wear; slight page-edge browning; name written inside front cover; very good minus reading copy.
[Order code:8145 / Price £1.00]

Bradbury, Ray - A Graveyard for Lunatics. Grafton, 1990, 1st. The graveyard for lunatics is Hollywood - of the 1950s, facing, like Janus, both to the past and the future: but mostly to the past. Our Hero, as bright-eyed and unheroic as they come, is a scriptwriter, a movie-buff and star-worshipper still in love with the Golden Age. It is 1954 and Halloween when he receives an anonymous note inviting him to the Green Glades Cemetary, where he is promised a great revelation. The revelation is a body, a lifelike dummy of J. C. Arbuthnot, the former head of the great and glorious studio, Maximus Films: he had died in a car crash 20 years before: or possibly not... ... (flap). 9½" x 6", 286pp, brown cloth, gold blocked spine lettering, hardback. The wrapper has 7 faint pen-point sized dents plus a heavy one over the front hinge which has penetrated the wrapper and the book below, is price-cut and has a slightly sunned spine, otherwise fine with fine book.
[Order code:10831 / Price £1.00]

Bradford, Barbara Taylor - A Woman of Substance. Panther. 1984 reprint. In 1905, Emma Harte, kitchen maid, leaves Fairley Hall. She is sixteen, single and pregnant. By 1968, she is one of the richest women in the world, ruler of a business empire that stretches from Yorkshire to the glittering cities of America and the rugged vastness of Australia. Emma Harte is A Woman of Substance. But what is the price she has paid? A magnificent dynastic saga, as impossible to put down as it is to forget. (back cover). 868pp, standard paperback. 5 light spine creases; slightly concave spine; lower-front corner of front-cover creased; slight edge-wear; very good (no inscriptions, not ex-library) sound, reading copy.
[Order code:7461 / Price £1.00]

Bribson, Tom - The Story of Pierre. Self Publishing Association, 1993, 1st thus. In this story the author expresses his deep conviction of the awareness of the Presence of God. We trace the lives of the inhabitants of a small French village, from the tragic accident to the foremost character, Pierre Garston, to his unhappy adolescence from which he can see only misery ahead. Then his is given the opportunity of complete happiness... As we watch his struggles, finding happiness depends not on chance but following the Law of Love, we see how one person's faith can influence the lives of a whole community. (back board). 8¾" x 5½", 118pp, illustrated laminated boards, hardback. Fine (no inscriptions, no bumps, not ex-library) probably unread, no wrapper (as issued?).
[Order code:4258 / Price £4.00]

Bristowe, Anthony - The Tunnel. Five Star, 1972. 158pp, standard paperback. Edges of paper 'browned', name ins. at top of title-page, o/w externally good, internally very good.
[Order code:5007 / Price £0.50] plus post at cost.

Brittain, Vera - Testament of Experience. Virago, 1980 reprint. 7½" x 4½", 480pp, illustrated paper covered boards, hardback. Ex-library with usual stickers and stamps, externally good, internally very good, no wrapper, reading copy only.
[Order code:5077 / Price £1.00]

Brode, Anthony - To Bed on Thursday. Country Book Club, 1st thus, 1959. For the purposes of this book I have brought off a merger between not only the two weekly papers for which I worked but also two editors, two towns, two sets of councils, courts and so forth. Former colleagues who feel "it couldn't have happened here" may therefore confidently ascribe any unlikely incident to the other place and paper. General readers who believe that weekly papers are anachronisms and ipso facto amusing are warned that these chapters were written in the belief that (with two or three exceptions) real newspapers now exist solely in the provinces. Most Fleet Street editors must realise this, or they would not have changed their papers into feature magazines devoted to the upkeep of the arts or the bust. (Author's note, Summer 1957). 8¼" x 5", 172pp, light blue cloth, hardback. Name and date signature on front-free endpaper; spine sunned; very good, no wrapper.
[Order code:5866 / Price £3.50]

Brontë, Charlotte - Jane Eyre. Longmans' Simplfied English Series version.Abridged and simplified by E. M. Attwood. Longmans, 4th imp., 1952. 7¼" x 5", 160pp, grey, illustrated card, sb. Illustrated with 4 full-page monochrome engravings by Fritz Eichenberg. Very good.
[Order code:3208 / Price £2.00]

Bronte, Charlotte - Jane Eyre. Dean, ND, ins. 1959. This is, I understand, an abridged edition. 7½" x 5", 248pp, red buckram, hb. Sunday-school prize bookplate on front-free endpaper, no 'browning' to paper edges (which is unusual for a Dean edition), some creasing to front cover, good only, internally fine, c/w rather wragged wrapper. Useful for students requieing a refresher re-read without having to read the full-text, however, the text does not appear that much abridged. Average.
[Order code:6889 / Price £1.00]

Bronte, Anne, Emily and Charlotte - Wuthering Heights, Villette, Agnes Grey and Jane Eyre. Regent, 1983. 11" x 8¼", 314pp, large paperback. Good, clean, useful for student.
[Order code:8745 / Price £1.00]

Bronte, Emily - Wuthering Heights. Simplified edition, by Evelyn Attwood; upper intermediate level, 2000 words vocabulary level. Longman, 1999. 7¾" x 5", 150pp paperback. Creasing to top-front corner of front cover; probably unread (no spine creases, no inscriptions, not ex-library). A useful quick-read revision aid.
[Order code:5893 / Price £2.00]

Bronte, Anne - The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Penguin. 1983 reprint, Penguin English Library edition. 510pp standard paperback. Cover a bit dog-eared, read but perfectly acceptable copy. Average.
[Order code:9117 / Price £1.00]

Brown, Christy - Down all the Days. World Books, 1971 reprint. "He sat in the boxcar on the edge of the excited group of boys". So opens the first chapter of this novel. He sat thus because he was an almost helpless cripple, scarcely able to participate in the activities around him. Yet he is the focal figure of Down All the Days, a boy wehn the novel starts, on the thrshold of manhood when it ends, fully possessed of the mind and emotions of a human being. Unable to join in, he observes from his boxcar with a heart at once tormented and serene, recording the actions and emotions of the sprawling family, of which he is part, in the Dublin slum where they live. Here in fact is Dublin in the forties and fifties, down all the days of its suffering and joys. Coarse, brutal, boozing, fornicating fCatholic Dublin of the back streets and seedy pubs; with its splendours and miseries, its enormous zest for living. (flap). 8" x 5", 254pp, full brown cloth, hardback. Very slightly sunned spine; page-edge browning; very good complete with good (slightly sunned spine, heavy edge-wear, fox spots) wrapper.
[Order code:3660 / Price £1.00]

Brown, Hilton - That State of Life. Geoffrey Bles. 1938, 1st. 7½" x 4¾", 340pp, orange cloth, black blocking, hardback. Spine sunned, inscription on front-free endpaper, externally good plus, internally very good, sound, no wrapper. Above average.
[Order code:9131 / Price £5.00]

Brown, Mandy - Beware of the Stranger. Robert Hale, 1969, 1st. Jill Ames had problems. One was centred around her brother, and his demoralising way of life. Another concerned the fiasco of her romance with her employer. The third was in connection with Deidre Olman, the girl who shared her flat, and the latter's sinister and mysterious boy friend, David Graham. When Deidre suddenly disappeared, after announcing her marriage to David, all the evidence pointed to him as the person responsible. Yet in spite of this, Jill, too, found herslef falling under his spell, and felt the urge to defend and sheild him against his accusers. The truth only came to light when Jill and her brother fell into the clutches of a ruthless gang of criminals. When the shadows were lifted, Jill gained her delayed happiness with the man she loved. (flap). 7½" x 5", 192pp, dark-blur cloth, gold blocking, hardback. Ex-library (the wrapper is within a library plastic cover which is taped to the pastedowns and over onto the boards [best left as-is], lending-list and index-card on front-free endpaper, reference stamp on verso of title-page); some top-corner place-marking folds; otherwise very good complete with, probably fine, wrapper but, as above, this is within a plastic cover that, if removed, would cause some damage and so is best left as-is.
[Order code:16080 / Price £10.00]

Buchan, James - Davy Chadwick. Hamish Hamilton, 1987, 1st. Cut off from their roots in England, out of touch with the world outside their small village in southern Italy, the Chadwick family are preocupied with trying to maintain their meagre capital and status. Then, one December day, the genteel tone of John and Dawn Chadwick's lives abruptly laters. Their five-year-old son Davy has Disappeared. The story is told in three separate narratives of the same events: those of the Chadwick parents, and that of their visitor William Nelson who is with them at the time of Davy's disappearance. The rentier existence of the Chadwicks, and the ambiguities and contradictions in Nelson's attitude towards them, make the crisis progressively more intolerable. Confined day after day in their tumbledown villa by the winter rains, anger and suspicion climb towards a pitch of hysteria. Each one lacks the honest to examine his own past for the crucial clues to why Davy disappeared. And none will share his evidence for mistrust of the others, yet all three know tthat Davy can only be found if one of them can succeed in breaking out of the cycle of secrecy and guilt. (Wrapper flap). 8¾" x 5¼", 152pp, black cloth, gold blocked spine lettering, hardback. Slight page-edge browning, fine (no inscriptions, no bumps, no marks, NOT ex-library) probably unread, complete with similar wrapper, NOT price-cut.
[Order code:14259 / Price £5.00]

Buck, Pearl S. - Eine Liebesehe: Roman (A Dear Marriage: Roman?). Bertelsmann Lesering (bookclub?), 1958. Text is in German. 7½" x 4¾", 232pp, brown cloth, gold blocking, hardback. Slightly sunned spine; binding slightly 'cocked'; very good (no inscriptions, no bumps, not ex-library), no wrapper.
[Order code:14941 / Price £1.00]

Bunyan, John - The Pilgrim's Progress. R. E. King, not dated, inscribed 1906. 7" x 4¾", 316pp, red cloth, hardback. Inscripiton on front paste-down, couple of marks on back-board, page-edge browning, good plus, no wrapper.
[Order code:6505 / Price £1.00]

Bunyan, John - The Pilgrim's Progress. Blackie. Not dated, '30s? 7½" x 4¾", 288pp plus 1 plate, red cloth, black blocking, hardback. Colour frontispiece. Appears to be an erased inscription on front-free endpaper, externally good plus, internally very good, complete with good plus wrapper. Above average.
[Order code:9133 / Price £5.00]

Burke, Martyn - The Commissar's Report. Granada. 1984, 1st. What Heller's Catch-22 did for the Second World War, Burke's The Commissar's Report does for the Cold War. From its opening page to the bizarre twist at the end, the novel is a trhilling, wickedly funny and darkly satirical tale. ... (flap). 8¾" x 5¼", 380pp, dark-green buckram, hardback. Ex-library (hinges taped, and stitched, with cloth library-tape, remnants of lending slip on front-free endpaper, reference stamp on title-page, faint glue mark of some sort of 2¾" x 4" label at foot of back end paper); slight edge-foxing; slight page-edge browning; very good minus complete with very good minus (slightly sunned spine, slight edge-wear) wrapper, not price-cut.
[Order code:7268 / Price £2.00]

Burn, Michael - Yes, Farewell. Reprint Society. 1947, 3rd impression. Appears to be (I've not read it, so this impression may be completely false) a World War 2 POW escape from Germany novel set between October 1943 and May 1945 (chapters: The Castle [Twenty-four hours]; The Escape [Two weeks]; Dr Tomavich [Three months]; The Castle Again [Five months]; Liberation [Six months]. 7½" x 5", 444pp, black cloth, hardback. A few cover marks, title-label rubbed/loss to top-right corner, bump to front-edge of front board near top-front corner, case detaching (about half-way) at front-free endpaper/half-title join, endpapers foxed, good, reading copy.
[Order code:10382 / Price £1.00]

Burns, Christopher - The Flint Bed. Sceptre, 1991. Eking out a solitary existence as warden of a Cumbrian nature reserve, Maurice Fretwell, a former priest, seeks sanctuary from his loss of faith. But when an American and his adopted Vietnamese daughter arrive, Maurice becomes unwillingly involved in their search for her natural parents, and the ensuing tragedy forces him to confront the past before regeneration can begin. (back cover). 186pp, Large format paperback. Unread, no spine creases; slight edge-wear; slight page-edge browning; very good plus.
[Order code:5634 / Price £1.00]

Burroughs, Edgar Rice - Out of Time's Abyss. Ace Books, New York, No. 233. Not dated, 1960s? On Caprona, the Land That Time Forgot, all of the world's savage past still lived. Here were dinosaurs and flying reptiles, here were the most primitive of cavemen and the last of the Bronze Age barbarians. But there was one more secret that the claws and fangs and sharp-edged spears guarded most of all. This is the story of the man who tried to find that final secret. When Bradley, the adventurer, dared to cross the last terrible barrier to the heart of Caprona, he entered a world of wonder, terror and danger beyond the imagination of any man [except Burroughs, obviously ;-)))]. 6½" x 4¼", 128pp, paperback. Top-front corner of front cover creased, page-edge browning, good (no spine creases, practically no corner-wear, no inscriptions, NOT ex-library).
[Order code:14624 / Price £2.00]

Burroughs, Edgar Rice - The People that Time Forgot. Ace Books, New York, No. 220. Not dated, 1960s? In uncharted Caprona, a continent lost from the map of the Earth, where Time had stopped and all the primeval creatures of long-gone ages still prowled, Bowen Tyler was lost. To find Tyler, Thomas Billings traveled across the world to Caprona, where even stranger mysteries awaited him, and a barbaric civilization hid, torn between the impossable jungle on the one side and an unknown menace on the other. 6½" x 4¼", 128pp, paperback. Rub round 'OR' of title, page-edge browning, good (no spine creases, practically no corner-wear, no inscriptions, NOT ex-library).
[Order code:14625 / Price £2.00]

Burton (trnas.), Sir Richard F. - The Perfumed Garden of the Shaykh Nefzawi. Neville Spearman, 1963, 1st thus. Edited, introduced and annotated by Alan Hull Walton. 8¾" x 5½", 272pp, red cloth, hb. Very good c/w similar wrapper. Above average.
[Order code:5559 / Price £9.50]

Butler, Samuel - The Way of All Flesh. Penguin. Butler, Samuel - The Way of All Flesh. Penguin, 1995 (1st thus). Samuel Butler drew upon the raw material of his own life as the son of a stern clerical father and on his days at boarding school and at Cambridge in his portrayal of the Pontifex family and his protagonist Ernest pontifex. His theme is the war between parents and children, his target is Victorian social, sexual and religious hypocrisy, and his weapons are a genius for caricature and passionate bitterness redeemed by comedy. (back cover). 374pp standard papeerback. 2 spine creases but even so probably unread; slight page-edge browning; very good (no inscriptions, not ex-library).
[Order code:16511 / Price £1.00]

How To Order | E-mail Me | Home

General Fiction Sorted By Author's Surname - Next Section:

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |