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MACLEAN, FITZROY: : TAKE NINE SPIES

LONDON.WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON,1978.

ISBN 0297773852.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.[Includes excerpts from Philby's 'My Silent War' and Penkovsky's 'The Penkovsky Papers with respective publisher's permission.] FINE-/FINE-. No owner inscrptn and no clip to dw/dj - absence of publisher's price.These edns are generally believed to be export edns and precede the trade edns issues and distribution in the country of origin. Bright,crisp,clean,glossy,wrap-around navy blue background with capitalised red-lettered author name and capitalised white-lettered title and beneath the title montaged thumbnail,8 contemporary b/w portrait photographs of 8 of the 9 spies discussed.The ninth - Major William Martin was a persona invented by British Military Intelligence for 'Operation Mincemeat', the WW2 deception plan that lured German forces to Greece prior to the Allied invasion of Sicily.Also known as "the man who never was. Spine/backstrip with similarly coloured lettering from front panel and with black-lettered publisher name within a rectangular white panel at foot of same,rear panel of dw/dj with repeated b/w photographs and black-lettered text within a white panel.Negligible shelf-wear, bumping,creasing to edges,an internal sellotape repair to small nick on front's top edge near top corner and an internal+external sellotape repair to top,rear corner - no other nicks,tears or splits present and other corners unaffected. Some minor,superficial scoring/indents to either panel of dw/dj but without penetration to boards beneath.The top edges lightly toned,fore-edges lightly thumbed (?); contents remarkably crisp, bright and clean,solid and sound - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corner tips - carefully read,or possibly unread,other than my own collation.Publisher's bright,crisp,clean, sharp-cornered,original,plain dark blue cloth boards with bright,crisp,blocked gilt-lettered spine/backstrip and immaculate plain,pale blue endpapers.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,1-341pp [paginated] includes 9 chapters,The Spy Who Never Was,8pp of subjects' contemporary biographical,portrait photographs in 1 block, between pp152/53,acknowledgements and a 2pp Select Bibliography; plus [unpaginated] half-title,title page with dedication to reverse, contents list/table,illustrations list/table, both the latter with a blank verso,and to the rear,2pp blanks. Visually the exterior appearance is exceptional,and even internally,the book is also in an exceptional condition/state of preservation and presentation for a book of its forty-five-year-old age. It is only those minimal exterior faults that prevents a slightly higher overall grading. Despite them,it really is still an exceptional copy for its cleanliness and brightness and its scarcity. Never actually involved in espionage,Sir Fitzroy Maclean has in his time rubbed shoulders with plenty of spies and spy masters of various nationalities and allegiances,while his own real-life adventures,in Turkestan,in Persia,in the Balkans and the Western Desert,so well recounted in his autobiographical 'Eastern Approaches',have the same quality of improbability and unexpectedness which marks the really good thriller. In 'Take Nine Spies',he tells as skilfully as ever,nine true spy stories,each carefully selected for its own particular interest or significance and each more fascinating than its predecessor.His first-hand knowledge of his subject and very often of the people and places concerned,have enabled him to separate fact from fiction and bring alive the extraordinary characters and events he describes.This and his gift for narrative help him to throw a new and vivid light on a perennially fascinating subject. Sir Fitzroy Hew Royle Maclean,1st Baronet, KT, CBE (b. 11th March,1911 – d. 15 June 1996.) was a Scottish soldier,writer and politician. He was one of only two men,who during WW2 enlisted in the British Army as a private and rose to the rank of brigadier,the other being future fellow Conservative MP Enoch Powell. Maclean wrote several books,including 'Eastern Approaches',in which he recounted three extraordinary series of adventures: travelling, often incognito,in Soviet Central Asia; fighting in the Western Desert campaign,where he specialised in commando raids behind enemy lines; and living rough with Josip Broz Tito and his Yugoslav Partisans while commanding the Maclean Mission there. It has been widely speculated that Ian Fleming used Maclean as one of his inspirations for James Bond. Please contact seller,for correct shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page! ** N.B. ALL buyers please note,stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch,especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE. ** N.B. US/Canada customers please be aware: Standard AIRMAIL postage from UK to these destinations can now cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence, then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.
Not SIGNED.