Palomino Blonde (Signed)

First edition, first impression (true first). Prelims plus 150pp. Signed by the author on the front free endpaper: "Ted Allbeury, Hambleton (?) Kent, Jan '75" In black cloth covered-boards with gilt lettering to spine. (Boards strong, square and clean, top edge dust marked with some foxing on leading text block edge). Internally neat, clean, bright and tight. There is a previous owner's name inscribed on the front free endpaper (alongside the author's signature). In its original, near fine dust jacket. The dust jacket is now protected in an archival-quality mylar wrapper, fitted without the use of adhesives or tape. Ted Allbeury was a British author, writing mainly espionage fiction. He served as an intelligence office in the Special Operations Executive during the second world war, and is said to have been the only British Secret Agent who parachuted into Nazi Germany during the war and remained there until the Allied armies arrived. He wrote over forty novels, often drawing on his war time experience, some of which were published under the pen names Patrick Kelly and Richard Butler.