preface random house london (9 results)

Softcover. Condition: Sehr gut. 357 p. Size: 235 x 155 mm.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. First edition, first impression with full number line. SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR, IN BLACK PEN, ON TITLE PAGE 'Love Julia Roberts x'. Some slight edge wear to top and bottom of jacket and spine, corners slightly bruised, not price clipped (£18.99), no other inscriptions, internally clean tight and square, overall a vg++ copy. 457pp. An autobiography by the 'face' of the QVC shopping channel and her struggle to overcome the effects of a childhood bout of the killer disease polio. Signed by Author(s).

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. Jacket by Tim Byrne (illustrator). 1st Edition. First edition, subsequent impression with number line '10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2'. Some edge wear to top and bottom of jacket and spine, corners bruised, not price clipped (£12.99), no inscriptions, internally clean tight and square, overall a vg+ copy. 404pp. January 1069. Less than three years have passed since Hastings and the death of the usurper Harold Godwineson. In the depths of winter, two thousand Normans march to subdue the troublesome province of Northumbria. Tancred a Dinant, an ambitious and oath sworn knight and a proud leader of men, is among them, hungry for battle, for silver and for land. But at Durham the Normans are ambushed in the streets by English rebels. In the battle that ensues, their army is slaughtered almost to a man. Badly wounded, Tancred barely escapes with his life. His lord is among those slain. Soon the enemy are on the march, led by the dispossessed prince Eadgar, the last of the ancient Saxon line, who is determined to seize the realm he believes is his. Yet even as Tancred seeks vengeance for his lord's murder, he finds himself caught up in secret dealings between a powerful Norman magnate and a shadow from the past. As the Norman and English armies prepare to clash, Tancred begins to uncover a plot which harks back to the day of Hastings itself. A plot which, if allowed to succeed, threatens to undermine the entire Conquest. The fate of the Kingdom hangs in the balance. The author's debut novel.

Card covers trade paperback size 365pp b&w plates. Near fine. Lt Colonel E.W. Hermon died in a hail of bullets on the 9th April 1917, the first day of the Battle of Arras, leading his men of the 24th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers into the attack. He was shot through the heart, one bullet slicing through the papers in his top pocket, including the four-leaf clover his wife had given him for good luck. His final words to his Adjutant were 'Go on!' before he sank to his knees and died. He left a testament of his life and ideals in a collection of long and detailed letters he wrote to his wife and his children. These letters speak of a past, less cynical life, where selflessness, honour, duty and courage were admired above all else. His courage was officially recognised, as he was mentioned in despatches three times and posthumously awarded the D.S.O. The letters have been transcribed and edited by Hermon's granddaughter Anne Nason with the guidance and historical advice of James Holland, the historian and writer. The letters are of great interest in their candour and context since Hermon was Battalion Commander and thus his letters were not censored.

Soft cover. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. SIGNED on the title page, fine condition, trade paperback/octavo, printed card covers, advanced reading copy issued prior to publication June, 2009, 280 pages. [QP]. Signed by Author(s).

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. Jacket by Richard Lodey (illustrator). 1st Edition. First edition, first impression with full number line. SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR, IN BLACK PEN, ON TITLE PAGE 'Best wishes Tessa H'. Some slight edge wear to top and bottom of jacket and spine, some slight dents to back jacket, not price clipped (£12.99), no other inscriptions, internally clean tight and almost square, overall a vg+ copy. 278pp. Having given up a high powered job and the lifestyle to match, Tessa Hainsworth had no idea how hard she would struggle when, full of optimism, she fulfilled her dream of moving to rural Cornwall with her young family one September. Within months, she is almost ready to return to London, tail between her legs, her husband is still out of work, her children are struggling in a cold, damp, tumbledown house and the family is running out of money, fast. But a chance encounter in the local post office leads her to accept the unlikeliest of job offers. 'Up with the Larks' charts Tessa's turbulent first year with the Royal Mail, and her transformation from outsider to 'Posh Postie', adopted Cornishwoman and much loved member of her new community. She starts in the bitter darkness of midwinter, faced with the perils of the Christmas rush, a van with a mind of its own and a host of unfamiliar routes, local characters and their animals, large and small. But, day by day and month by month, she meets and learns to love a wonderfully colourful cast of characters until her second Christmas in Cornwall is entirely different from the first, as the community goes out of its way to thank her with small gifts and other tokens of their affection. At last she feels Cornwall is home. Scarce signed. Signed by Author(s).

Soft cover. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. SIGNED on the title page, trade paperback/octavo, printed card covers, 6 unpaginated plus 250 pages. [QP]. Signed by Author(s).

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. Jacket by Giles Cooke (illustrator). 1st Edition. First edition, first impression with full number line. SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR, IN BLACK PEN, ON TITLE PAGE 'I Saludes! Robin Bayley'. Some very slight edge wear to top an bottom of jacket and spine, 'Signed Copy' sticker to top front jacket, not price clipped (£12.99), no other inscriptions, internally clean tight and square, overalla a vg++ copy. 277pp, illustrated, mao endpapers. As a child, Robin Bayley was enchanted by his grandmother's stories of Mexican adventures, of bandits, wild jungle journeys, hidden bags of silver and a narrow escape from the bloody Mexican Revolution. But Robin sensed there was more to these stories than anyone knew, and so he set out to follow in the footsteps of his great grandfather. 'The Mango Orchard' is the story of parallel journeys' a hundred years apart, into the heart of Latin America. Undaunted by the passage of time and a paucity of information, Robin seeks out the places where his great grandfather Arthur 'Arturo' Greenhalgh travelled and lived, determined to uncover his legacy. Along the road Robin encounters witches, drug dealers, a gun toting Tasmanian Devil and an ex Nazi diamond trader. He is threatened with deportation, offered the protection of Colombian guerrilla fighters and is comforted by the blessings of los santos. He falls in love with a beautiful Guatemalan girl with mystical powers and almost gives up his quest, until a sense of destiny drives him on to western Mexico and the discovery of much, much more than he had bargained for. Scarce signed. Signed by Author(s).

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. First edition, subsequent impression with number line '2 5 7 9 10 8 6 4'. SIGNED, DATED AND INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR, IN BLACK PEN, ON TITLE PAGE 'To John with best wishes, Henry, 2017'. Some very slight edge wear to top and bottom of jacket and spine, top corners very slightly bruised, not price clipped (£20.00), no other inscriptions, internally clean tight and square, overall a vg++ copy. 400pp, illustrated. Maxwell Knight was a paradox. A jazz obsessive and nature enthusiast (he is the author of the definitive work on how to look after a gorilla), he is seen today as one of MI5's greatest spymasters, a man who did more than any other to break up British fascism during the Second World War, in spite of having once belonged to the British Fascisti himself. He was known to his agents and colleagues simply as M and was rumoured to be part of the inspiration for the character M in the James Bond series. Knight became a legendary spymaster despite an almost total lack of qualifications. What set him apart from his peers was a mercurial ability to transform almost anyone into a fearless secret agent. He was the first in MI5 to grasp the potential of training female agents. M is about more than just one man however. In its pages, Hemming reveals for the first time in print the names and stories of seven men and women recruited by Knight, on behalf of MI5, and then asked to infiltrate the most dangerous political organizations in Britain at that time. Until now, their identities have been kept secret outside MI5. Drawn from every walk of life, they led double lives, often at great personal cost, in order to protect the country they loved. With the publication of this book, it will be possible at last to celebrate the lives of these courageous, selfless individuals. Drawing on declassified documents, private family archives and interviews with retired MI5 officers as well as the families of MI5 agents, M reveals not just the shadowy world of espionage but a brilliant, enigmatic man at its centre. Scarce signed. Signed by Author(s).