The Riddle of the Sands
Smith, Elder & Co., 1903.
First edition. Original black cloth with enamel lettering to the spine and yacht vignette to the upper cover. Map of the North Sea facing the title page as called for. A fine copy, extraordinarily with no flaking to the enamel on the spine or upper cover and no mentionable wear to the cloth. Internally very clean with the faintest foxing to the foreedge and the neat bookplate of Alexander McGrigor to the front pastedown. An exceptional copy of a scarce and very susceptible book.
The author's only novel, and the first modern spy novel. Set before the First World War the novel pits two amateur sailors-cum-sleuths against the secret forces of Germany. Their navigational skills prove equally as important as their powers of deduction in uncovering a plot which threatens national security.
Apparently Childers, himself an accomplished yachtsman, wrote the novel as a wake up call to the British government to look to their North Sea defences, and in due course a North Sea port for the Royal Navy, Rosyth, was constructed in response to this book.
"Not only a good spy story but also one of the finest tales about small-sailing craft ever written" (Eric Ambler)
Haycraft Queen Cornerstone
Stock ID: 42769
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