Description

8vo., First Edition, with 15 plates on 8 and endpaper maps in red; handsomely bound in full burgundy crushed morocco, sides with gilt frame border, back with raised bands, second and fourth compartments lettered and ruled in gilt, all other compartments tooled in gilt, gilt top, hand-made endpapers, ribbon marker, cust-made slip-case, a most attractive copy ideal as a gift or for presentation. ARGUABLY THE SCARCEST OF ALL THE SOE PERSONAL MEMOIRS. Fielding (1918-1991) was one of the first SOE agents (with Paddy Leigh Fermor and Dick Barnes) to be landed in Crete where he spent two years or so in a precarious game of hide and seek with the occupying Germans. Arrested in France later in the war, he was saved from execution by the Polish SOE agent Krystyna Skarbek. In post-war years a close friend of Lawrence Durrell, Fielding developed a career as writer and translator, achieving acclaim for his translation of 'The Bridge on the River Kwai'. SCARCE. Enser, p.192.