FLASHMAN AND THE ANGEL OF THE LORD.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.NFINE/NFINE.No owner inscrptn,and no price-clip to dw/dj.Clean,bright,glossy,laminated,colour pictorial wrap-around artwork by Larry Rostant,illustrated dw/dj; with negligible shelf-wear and minimal creasing to edges,corners and spine/backstrip - no nicks or tears present.Head+foot of spine/ backstrip minisculely bumped with reciprocal creasing.Top edge slightly aged and lightly dust-soiled/spotted; fore-edge brighter and cleaner,contents bright,tight and clean.Bright,clean,red paper-covered bds with bright,crisp,stamped gilt letters to spine/ backstrip,and immaculate plain white eps.[Production fault of boards being put on upside down!!] UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,6- 394pp includes half-title+title pages,author's explanatory note, double-page b/w map,single-page b/w map,appendices (3),notes, 2pp publisher advert to rear. If only Flashman had got on with his dinner,and ignored the handkerchief dropped by a flirtatious hussy in a Calcutta hotel. . . . well,American history would have been different.Lincoln might never have entered the White House,an elderly farmer would probably not have been hanged in his carpet slippers,a disastrous civil war might have been avoided - and Flash Harry himself would have been spared one of the most hair-raising adventures of his misspent life. If only. . . .but alas,the arch-rotter of the Victorian age could never resist the lure of a pretty foot,especially when he had just emerged from the Indian Mutiny and was,in his own felicitous phrase,"beginning to itch for something English again";he was after her like a shot,never suspecting that this was the first fatal step on a desperate journey in which his disgraceful American past would catch up with him,and he would encounter old enemies thirsting for revenge,secret societies blackmailing him into their intrigues,undercover agents,escaped slaves,bucko mates, eccentric clergymen,hooded horrors,black gun-slingers,scheming and passionate beauties of assorted colours,and even (oh lor'!) Yankee politicians,before it all ended in blood and betrayal in the little Virgina town of Harper's Ferry where John Brown and his gang of ragged fanatics had raised the standard of rebellion and fired the first shot in the great war against slavery.(Poor old Flashy - he would have been well advised to linger over his brandy and cigar.) It was,in his view,all sufficiently beastly,and tested to the limit those talents for treachery,lechery,and fleetness of foot which earned the Great Bounder undeserved glory in his own time,and have since enthralled those seekers after historical enlightenment who have followed his fortunes from his fag-roasting days in Tom Brown's Schooldays,cheering him on as he charged flatulently at Balaclava,ran roaring from Little Big Horn, and skulked,seduced, lied,toadied,and dived for cover in battle and boudoir from Paisley to Peking.This 10th volume of "The Flashman Papers" finds him once more palpitating at the hinge of history,and,in the breathless intervals between flights,escapes,dalliances,and thunderous action,casting his sardonic and perceptive eye on human folly and frailty and a long-forgotten crisis which shaped the destiny of the Western world.And,as his millions of admirers know,history is never quite the same after Flashman has observed it from wherever he happens to be lurking. Since April 2013,again in March 2015,and in this year too,the UK Post Office has altered it's Pricing in Proportion template,altering its prices,weight allowances,dimensions and lowered its qualifying compensation rates too! So,please contact rpaxtonden@blueyonder.co.uk ,because of the weight/value of this item,for correct,insured shipping/ P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!