The Price Was High: A Novel

First edition, first impression.  285, [iii]pp.  Blue cloth-covered boards with gilt titles on the spine.  8vo.  Cloth slightly rounded on corners and spine ends, faded around edges.  Text block edges dull and darkened. Hint of spotting on endpapers, small bookseller’s ticket on front paste down Internally neat, clean, bright and tight.  In its original dust wrapper, rubbed all around edges with some small chips and nicks, shelf worn all over, a little sunned to spine, not price clipped. Dust jacket now protected in a removable clear film sleeve.  

Gilbert Hackforth-Jones was a well-regarded author, know for his yarns of life in the Navy, in peace and war, aboard submarines and battleships, portrayed with realism.  This novel is no exception: the story of a young Englishman who did not fit in pre-war London but seized opportunity on joining the Navy and proved himself an exceptional seaman, and a strong human: “good racy stuff with plenty of excitement” (The Sunday Times).