BOYS WILL BE BOYS.

UK,slim 8vo HB+protected dw/dj,1st edn.VG+/VG.No owner inscrptn and no price-clip to protected dw/dj.Slightly aged,grubbed and spotted red, white and black cartoon illustrated dw/dj panels with red+black letters; with some shelf-wear and creasing to edges and corners - some minor nicks along edges,some closed tears to gutter's edges of top of spine/ backstrip of dw/dj.All corners minimally bumped with reciprocal creasing, dw/dj corners also rubbed with some minimal loss.Both bottom edges of bds with minimal dents.Top edges aged/toned with some dust-soiling, fore-edges less aged and slightly brighter and cleaner; contents bright, tight and clean - no intentional dog-ear reading creases to pages' corners,though bottom corners slightly creased from board's denting - otherwise would appear unread - apart from my own collation.Bright, crisp,clean,publisher's original plain red cloth boards with bright,crisp, stamped facsimile gilt lettered signatures to front and to bright,crisp, stamped silver gilt letters to spine/backstrip and clean red,white and black cartoon by Broom Lynne and repeated from dw/dj,illustrated endpapers.The 6 facsimile signatures include Sweeney Todd,Sexton Blake,Jack Harkaway,Nick Carter,Deadwood Dick and Dick Barton.The front free endpaper is minus it's lower third,it having been torn out and removed for unknown reason or indication.UK,slim 8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn, 8-269pp [paginated] includes an intro by Capt. C. B Fry,author's preface, XVII (17) chapters,contemporary b/w illustrations throughout the text and the book,and an index,plus [unpaginated] half-title page with b/w illustrated frntis to it's recto,title page,contents list/table with author's note to it's recto and 2pp blanks at the rear. You need not be ashamed to be seen reading this book.Thus Alfred Harmsworth assured the readers of his early halfpenny boys magazine 'Union Jack'.We cannot resist passing on the assurance to the readers of this fascinating book which,says the author,invites them to take a backward somersault into the New Mythology - the mythology of Sexton Blake and Deadwood Dick,of Jack Sheppard,Jack Harkaway and Billy Bunter.The mythology,in fact,of all Dick Barton's ancestors. This book is not for those few,those very few,who can claim with a clear conscience that they never in their youth dipped,furtively of otherwise, into such literature.For the unregenerate rest,it is our hope that they will welcome the chance to look back at the he-men,the ape-men and the bird-men whose adventures they followed under cover of Hall's Algebra or in the precarious privacy of bed.Mr Turner describes his book as 'purely a refresher course.' Here you may look back to the astonishing adventures of Nelson Lee,the detective who turned schoolmaster and had once to deal with an ugly incident when the school turned communist; or to the great Sexton Blake whose adventures began in 1893 and,after some 200,000,000 words (then 1948),are still going strong.You may relive in pleasant reminiscence the exploits of Jack Harkaway and Billy Bunter,or,if you wish to be well-up-to-date,the cases of Dixon Hawke.Schoolboy heroes,of the old-fashioned breed,or the more modern type who conduct inter-planetary wars; spies,both beautiful and sinister; master-crooks, redskins,cowboys - they are all here,as striking as ever and,very properly,twice as large as life,in this absorbing and delightful book about the fiction we all once read. Since April 2013,again in March 2015,and in this year too,the UK Post Office has altered it's Pricing in Proportion template,altering it's prices, weight allowances,dimensions and lowered it's qualifying compensation rates too! So,please contact rpaxtonden@blueyonder.co.uk ,because of the weight/value of this item for correct,insured shipping/ P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!