A green cloth bound book with gilt lettering to the spine which has some signs of use and discoloured top edge - a very few dust marks to top edge of an otherwise pristine page block - in VERY GOOD condition. In a whole dust wrapper but chipped along top edge VERY GOOD PLUS condition.

£18.00 PLUS P & P

TOUCH AND GO
C. Northcote Parkinson

The vivid detail and narrative pace which have made Devil to Pay and The Fireship the unrivalled successors of the Hornblower series are fully in evidence in Parkinson's third novel about the adventures at sea of Richard Delancey. In Touch and Go Delancey is posted to Gibraltar to command the sloop Merlin for convoy protection in the Mediterranean.

Overcoming problems of discipline, gunnery and sail-drill among his crew, Delancey quickly proves his mettle by capturing an enemy ship during the siege of Valletta.

Later, as the war enters a new century, Delancey becomes involved in a series of romantic incidents, including the recovery of a statue from submerged Roman ruins and his rescue of a young slave-girl in North Africa. The story reaches its climax in the two great battles fought by a fellow Guernseyman, Rear-Admiral Sir James Saumarez, against a Franco-Spanish squadron at Algeciras and later off Cadiz.

Delancey is desperate when he hears that peace is on the horizon as he needs more prize-money to pay for the restoration of his family house. At the last moment he hears of a rich prize for the taking. Will he make the capture in time'? It is touch and go.

Jacket illustration by Victor Mays