The Far-distant Oxus

Reissue.  288pp, with line drawings illustrating the text by Pamela Whitlock.   Blue cloth-covered boards with gilt titles on the spine. Three colour maps on endpapers.  8vo.  Cloth is a little worn, gently rounded at corners and spine ends.  Hint of shadows on text block edges.  Internally neat, clean, bright and tight. In its original dust wrapper. chipped and chapped around edges with some minor crumbling and loss at the spine head and a couple of short, closed tears from edges.  Dust wrapper now protected in an archival-quality Mylar sleeve, fitted without the use of tape or adhesives.

First published in 1937, The Far-distant Oxus was written by two young girls, still at school, inspired by Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons.  They sent their manuscript to Ransome who declared it the best children’s book of the year and persuaded his own publisher to take it on.  Ransome also provided an introduction for the first edition.    The plot follows siblings Bridget, Anthony and Frances spending their summer holiday on Exmoor, where they meet the mysterious, nomadic Maurice and his pony, Dragonfly.