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BURN,MICHAEL: : MARY and RICHARD: The Story of Richard Hillary and Mary Booker

LONDON.ANDRE DEUTSCH LIMITED,1988.

ISBN 0233982809.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.VG+/VG.No owner inscrptn and no price-clip to dw/dj.Bright,crisp,clean, glossy laminated,subjects' contemporary b/w portrait photograpic illustrated front panel of dw/dj,with red+white lettering; with negligible shelf-wear and some minimal creasing to edges and corners - no major nicks or tears present. Majority of creasing to front panel's lower edge and spine/backstrip of dw/dj inevitably but slightly sunned/faded.Top+fore-edges lightly aged but generally bright and clean; contents bright,tight,clean - near pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners,appears unread - apart from my own collation.Bright, crisp,clean,sharp-cornered, publisher's original plain blue cloth bds with bright,crisp,stamped gilt letters to spine/backstrip and clean plain white eps.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,7-249pp [paginated] includes acknowledgements,illus list /table,epigrams,preface,11 chapters and an epilogue,12pp contemporary b/w auto+biographical photographs in 3 different blocks interspersed throughout the text and the book,a biblio,plus [unpaginated] half-title+ title pages,contents list/table and 6pp blanks at the rear. Mary Booker and Richard Hillary met in December 1941 and immediately fell in love.Mary was one of the most beautiful and gifted women of her generation: she was also twenty years older than Richard,who was recovering from the terrible injuries he had received as a fighter pilot in the Battle of Britain.He had just written 'The Last Enemy',his memorable account of his life up to,including and after that traumatic experience,when his injuries were tended by the pioneer of plastic surgery,Archibald McIndoe. For a year,until,at 23,Hillary was killed in another crash,Mary and Richard were very close even when they were apart.Over thirty years later,Michael Burn - who married Mary in 1947, after his own release from wartime imprisonment in Germany - found their letters,lovingly preserved,while going through Mary's papers after her death.Burn has woven them into a compelling narrative of devotion,gaiety, depression,exhaustion and ecstasy. As he writes: 'A love affair between a young man and an older woman is a classic relationship . . .' But Mary and Richard were exceptional. Their letters set forth with clarity,wit and poetry the emotional condition of innumerable lovers.To these intensifications of what is usual add the disaster of Richard's death,and a story emerges which does not deserve to stay hidden in the boxroom. The book is written not only as a story,but as a deeply felt personal responsibility.It is a dedicated commemoration of his wife,and a vindication of Hillary,to whose death it provides the true background,hitherto obscured by the fantasies of Arthur Koestler,Middleton Murry and others.It is a luminous document, profoundly moving and brillaintly told. [Richard Hillary was born in Sydney,Australia, in 1919.He came to England after the last war, where his father,who was in the Australian Treasury.In 1931 he went to Shrewsbury,and in 1937 to Trinity College,Oxford.He was at Oxford when the war broke out and,with other members of the Oxford R.A.F.V.R.,was immediately called to duty.He was one of the first pilots to be shot down in the Battle of Britain. Trapped in the blazing cockpit of his machine, he managed to struggle free and baled out,being picked up from the sea by a lifeboat and taken to Margate Hospital suffering from shock and severe burns.Then began a long period of surgical operations and convalescence interrupted by further operations.It was during this period that The Last Enemy was written.As soon as he had recovered sufficiently to use his hands,he did not rest from badgering the authorities until he had been allowed to return to operational flying.He was killed on active service on January 7,1943.Adjudged a literary classic of the Battle of Britain.The title comes from "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" 1 CORINTHIANS xv.26.] Since April 2013,and again in March 2015,and in this year too,the UK Post Office has altered it's Pricing in Proportion template,altering its prices,weight allowances,dimensions and lowered its qualifying compensation rates too! So,please contact seller,because of the value of this item,for correct,insured shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.

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