First edition, first printing (true first). Prelims plus 278pp. In grey cloth covered-boards with silver lettering to spine. (Boards strong and square, a little rounded on corners and spine ends). Top edge dusty. In its original dust jacket (small chip at base of spine). The dust jacket is now protected in an archival quality mylar wrapper, fitted without 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 experiences, some of which were published under the pen names Patrick Kelly and Richard Butler.
