£7.50 + P & P

THE HALFHYDE LINE

1st. 1984

George Weidenfeld and Nicolson Limited

London

ISBN 0 297 78484 6

A cobalt cloth bound book with gilt lettering to the spine in Near Fine condition in a Near Fine unclipped dust wrapper.

The author

Born in 1920 his obituary appeared in the Daily Telegraph 26.07.96. He joined the Royal Navy as a signalman in 1939 and served throughout the Second World War in a variety of ships, including the cruiser HMS Vindictive, the ocean boarding vessel LARGS, and the escort carrier HMS RAVAGER, ending the war as a lieutenant, RNVR. His first novel was published in 1957. He went on to become one of the fifty most read authors of the British lending library system, annually qualifying for the £6,000 maximum payable sum for Public Lending Rights.

Blurb

St Vincent Half hyde, now out of Queen Victoria's Navy and attempting to earn his living in the Merchant Service as master and owner of the elderly, only-just-seaworthy steamship Taronga Park, is on passage from Sydney, Australia to Queenstown in the south of Ireland. If Halfhyde thought that leaving the Navy meant leading a quiet life he was wrong. Whilst in the Pacific his ship is taken over by the man from whom he obtained his cargo – Porteous Higgins, ably assisted by a number of Halfhyde's recently-signed crew who now turn out to be in Higgins' pay. It transpires that the ship's cargo, said to be cased machine parts, consists of guns and ammunition destined for rebel enclaves in the West of Ireland.
After the murder of his Chief Engineer and the clandestine landing of his Chief Officer in the Chilean port of Puerto Montt, in the hope that a warning can be conveyed to the authorities via the British Minister in
Santiago, Halfhyde completes the voyage under Higgins' orders, and enters Cork harbour for Queenstown. But the British Naval authorities fail to react in time and allow Higgins and his thugs to leave the ship with the arms consignment.
Halfhyde, determined to put a personal spanner into Porteous Higgins' schemes, heads north with the loyal members of his crew to a confrontation with the rebels themselves in the wild, mountainous territory of Connemara.
Tacket illustration by Mike Roffe

Back to Philip McCutchan main page

 

My RETURNS & POSTAGE and PACKING Policies

If you wish to return a book please let me know as soon as possible but no later than three days after receipt. 

If you feel, and I agree after we have discussed it, that my description was misleading or inaccurate then, upon the receipt of the book in the condition you received it, I will then refund all your payment plus your return postage. 

If the book isn't what you really wanted and if we agree, then, upon my receipt of the book in the condition you received it, I will then refund your bid price.

I have found, so far, that the majority of my buyers are genuine.

For my part I try and describe the books as fairly as possible - I am not a professional - and do not like buyers to feel dissatisfied. 

My Postage and Packing charges are calculated before wrapping as best I can with a very nominal amount added for packaging costs.

With the new Royal Mail UK pricing it is, dependent on the weights, often impractical (and expensive) to pack books together so multiple buys within a seven day period are posted at cost. This means that in the case of Pay Pal payers the first book is sent off for the quoted P & P charge and I either quote for the subsequent P & P minus the overspend on the first book, or if it has been paid, refund the difference.