The Friendly House and the Thrilling Adventures of the Little Man who Built It

First edition, first impression.  156pp, colour plate frontispiece, further colour plates interleaved in text and many line drawings, all by Frank Rogers.  Blue cloth-covered boards with black lettering and illustration.  8vo.  Cloth a little soiled, gently rubbed and rounded at corners and spine ends, rubbed on spine joints.  Sunned over spine.  Slight lean.  Text block edges lightly toned. Compliments slip from M & D Reeve, antiquarian booksellers, pasted onto front paste down.  Gift inscription card pasted onto front free endpaper, reading “For a Dear Dad, We needed a special occasion to give you this special gift, with lots of love, Vanessa, Chris & Simon, Silver Wedding, 20/05/92. Slight strain to gutter between frontispiece and title page else internally neat, fresh and tight.

Herbert Leslie Gee (1901-1977) was a prolific English writer, also writing under the pen name, Francis Gay.  He is perhaps best remembered for the annual Friendship Books, first published in 1939, but his gentle adventure stories for children were popular at the time and now hard to find.