The Tiger, Life

First edition, first impression.  416pp.  Black cloth covered boards with gilt lettering on the spine.  8vo.  Cloth gently rounded on corners and spine ends.  There’s a strip of mottling on the cloth along the fore-edge and slightly so on the rear panel;  and the gutter ahead of the title page is strained.  Hint of shadowing to text block edge else neat, clean, bright and tight.  In its original illustrated, glossy dust wrapper s little rubbed on corners and gently bumped on extreme edges.  Dust wrapper now protected in  Brodart-style sleeve, fitted without the use of tape or adhesives.

Now unjustifiably overlooked,  Sarah Gainham was the pen name of Rachel Ames (nee Stainer).  She is remembered for her trilogy of novels about life in Vienna under Nazi rule which began with Night Falls on the City and which became best sellers in the 1960s.   Her finest writing however was in her spy fiction, written both before and after.   Among her followers, this, her final novel, is often considered a favourite.  Almost all her works are now out of print and – with the exception of the Vienna trilogy – very hard to find.