Donnachie david (3 risultati)

Soft cover. Condizione: Very Good. Spine is mildly creased.

Hardcover. Condizione: Near Fine. Condizione sovraccoperta: Near Fine. 1st Edition. First edition, first impression with full number line. DOUBLE SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, BOTH IN HIS REAL NAME DAVID DONNACHIE AND HIS PSEUDONYM JACK LUDLOW, IN SAME HAND, IN BLACK PEN, ON TITLE PAGE. Some very slight edge wear to top and bottom of jacket and spine, top corners badly bruised (dropped heavily?), with back corner bent, not price clipped (£19.99), no other inscriptions, internally clean tight and square, overall a vg+ copy. 382pp. Lieutenant John Pearce is in London seeking protection for his friends, the Pelicans, from a reluctant Admiralty, unaware that they have been turfed off the ship on which he left them in safety. Sitting in the tavern where he and the Pelicans were first press ganged, Pearce considers his future. Lacking funds, an occupation if he leaves naval service, or the evidence of perjury he once had to bring to justice Captain Ralph Barclay, the brute who pressed he and his companions into the Navy, his prospects are not promising. Ralph Barclay is a man with problems of his own. His young wife, Emily, is refusing to live under the same roof as him and she has the means to get her own way, the evidence Pearce believes lost at sea. Barclay's slippery clerk Gherson, has as much to lose as his employer and decides that Pearce must be silenced and, if need be, Emily Barclay too. After many trials, dodging press gangs and writs, Pearce's companions finally arrive in London just in time to join Pearce in his new enterprise. A smiling stranger has offered him an opportunity he can not refuse. It involves fetching a ship laden with contraband back from the French port of Gravelines, an illegal act but very profitable. But is it all as it seems? Are Pearce and his Pelicans sailing into prosperity or danger? Scarce signed. Jacket by Christina Griffiths (illustratore). Signed by Author(s).…

Hardcover. Condizione: Near Fine. Condizione sovraccoperta: Near Fine. 1st Edition. First edition, first impression with full number line. SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, WITHOUT DEDICATION, IN BLACK PEN, ON TITLE PAGE. Some very slight edge wear to top and bottom of jacket and spine, some faint spotty and fingerprints to page fore edges, not price clipped (£19.99), no other inscriptions, internally clean tight and square, overall a vg+ copy. 365pp. John Pearce comes back from Corsica demanding that Captain Barclay of HMS Brilliant, the man who originally pressed him and his fellow Pelicans into the Navy, be tried at home by a civilian court. Against the background of the ongoing siege of Toulon and with the Revolutionary Army massing to attack, no one in authority sees this as a good time to accede to his requests. Barclay's patron Admiral Hotham contrives a way out of the dilemma. He staffs the ship Pearce captured in Corsica with members of the Revolutionary Navy refusing to serve under the Bourbon flag and gives it to Henry Digby, with Pearce and his Pelicans under him, so that they may transport the renegade French sailors to an Atlantic port and set them free.Whilst Pearce is gone Hotham fixes a court martial where Barclay is found innocent for lack of evidence, a ruse that leads to an open breach with his wife Emily. Pearce eventually returns to the siege having survived conflict on both land and water only to find Barclay acquitted and exempt from further trial under the law of double jeopardy. Despite clear warnings not to do so he begins a romance with Emily Barclay, but mayhem surrounds the evacuation of Toulon and the revolutionary forces, including Napoleon Bonaparte, are closing in to retake the port. Scarce signed. Signed by Author(s).…