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14. aBerCromBie, sir Patrick. greater london Plan 1944. a report prepared on behalf of the standing conference on london regional Planning. H.M.S.O., 1945.
£75
4to. cream cloth, dust jacket; pp. x, 220, [2], illustrated with numerous b/w text figures, charts and tables, b/w and colour photographs and maps, 2 folding maps in pocket at rear of volume, 10 large folding maps in original envelope; a bright, clean copy.
Provenance: george Whipp. Ministry of town and country Planning. 19 st. James’s square. london. s.W. 1, inscribed in pencil and ink to the recto of the ffep.
First edition.
‘the triBesMen haVe Been aPtlY DescriBeD as the Best uMPires in the WorlD, Because theY selDoM alloWa tactical error to go unPunisheD’
15. aFGHanistan — Field notes afghanistan. general staff, india. 2nd edition, 1915. Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, India, 1915.
£295
square 16mo (132 x 106mm). original khaki cloth with fore-edge flap to close, upper board lettered in black and blocked with arms, spine lettered in black, upper pastedown with expanding pocket, lower pastedown with retaining band; pp. [4 (title, edition statement on verso concluding ‘all previous editions of this book are obsolete and should be destroyed’), contents, verso blank)], 165, [1 (imprint)]; 4 plates of soldiers, one plan of a fort, 5 plans depicting ghazni, herat, Jelallabad, Kabul, Kandahar printed in black and bistre (3 folding), 3 folding panoramas (2 of Jellalabad and Kabul), 2 folding colour-printed lithographic maps of the physical geography and ethnography of afghanistan loose as issued in upper pocket and one folding plan printed in red and black of routes from india loose as issued and retained on lower board; slightly marked and chipped at extremities, old repairs at spine-ends, cracking on upper hinge, occasional light spotting or browning, one folding map with small, skilfully-repaitred tears, otherwise a very good copy; provenance: lieutenant Maurice richard Dalton Pannett, Devonshire regiment (1898- 1980, inscription of circa 1917 on front flyleaf).
second edition (the first was published in 1912). this guide — which is marked on the upper cover ‘For official use only’ — was intended for those serving in afghanistan and the north-West Frontier. it offers a brief introduction to the history, geography, ethnography, resources, armed forces, forts, administration and communications (‘there are no railways or telegraphs in afghanistan’) of the country, with a lexicon of afghan Persian and Pushtu words and phrases in english, afghan Persian and Pushtu. its author was keen that the skill and ingenuity of afghan soldiers should not be underestimated, commenting that, in engagements with them, ‘there are no tactics in the usual sense of the term. each man fights according to his judgement, and advances or retires when prompted to do so by circumstances, or by his own will. the chief features are likely to be the obstinate defence of positions; gallant charges downhill against
troops working upwards; bold and skilful followings up of retirements; ambuscades; attacks on convoys; and the cutting off of small parties. night attacks and charges are not, as a rule, much indulged in: the tribesmen are well armed with long range weapons and are aware that, by seizing every opportunity for sniping into camp, and by adopting the guerilla tactics for which their country is so admirably suited, they will be able to inflict the maximum of loss on regular troops, with the minimum of loss to themselves’, adding that, ‘the tribesmen have been aptly described as the best umpires in the world, because they seldom allow a tactical error to go unpunished’ (pp. 2-3).
Copies of any edition of the work are rare: coPac only records a single copy in the united Kingdom (British library, presumably the first edition but dated ‘1913’), Worldcat adds another at Duke university, nc (second edition, 1915); none can be traced in KVK. this copy previously belonged to Major M.r.D. Pannett, who was commissioned into the Devonshire regiment in 1917 as a 2nd lieutenant, was promoted to lieutenant in 1919 and then captain in 1931, and married the portraitist Juliet Kathleen somers MBe, Frsa (1911-2005) in 1938.
16. [alPHaBet]. rUssell, Bertrand (author). Fransciska tHemerson (illustrator). the good citizen’s alphabet. Gaberbocchus Press. 1953.
£138
large square 8vo. original burnt orange cloth lettered in pale blue to spine, preserved in orange pictorial dustwrapper; pp. [56]; including 24 plates printed on coloured grounds, on rectos, with drawings in line to illustrate the letters of the alphabet (h/i andQ/r combined); a fine and exceptional copy protected by an equally fine and unclipped dustwrapper (8s 6d), including a pictorial bookmarker advertising Professor MMAA’s Lecture by stefan themerson, with a preface by Bertrand russell.
First edition. a typically satirical and subversive alphabet “asinine -What you think; Bolshevik - anyone whose opinions i disagree with”.
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