When the Going Was Good

London: Duckworth, 1946. First Edition 1st Printing. Buckram. Very Good/Fair. 22 x 15 Cms (9" x 6"). Henry Lamb (Frontispiece Portrait). PUBLISHING DETAILS: First printing of the first edition, with the rare dustjacket, published by Duckworth of London in 1946. 318 pages including index, with colour frontispiece portrait of author and tipped in map. Size; 22 x 15 cms (9" x 6"). Weight; 450g (16 ozs). CONDITION: I would rate the book as very good and the dustjacket as only fair. The book's original yellow buckram covers are generally sound and clean, with minor wear to the extremities and a little age-soiling (see photo). The binding remains tight and secure. The text is clean and free from foxing. There is foxing to one side of a front free endpaper and a stylishly penned owner's inscription. the dustjacket is still bright and vibrant, but with chips to the top and bottom edges and loss to the lower spine (see photo). THE BOOK: This book comprised all that the author wished to preserve of the four travel books he wrote between 1929 and 1935: 'Labels', 'Remote People', 'Ninety-two Days' and 'Waugh in Abyssinia'. In this collection he writes about a cruise around the Mediterranean, a train trip from Djibouti to Abyssinia to attend Emperor Haile Selassie's coronation in 1930, his travels in Aden, Zanzibar, Kenya and the Congo, coping with heat and mosquitoes, a journey to Guyana and Brazil, and his return to Addis Ababa in 1935 to report on the war between Abyssinia and Italy. Waugh's experiences gave him the ideas for such novels as "Scoop" and "Black Mischief". "From 1928 until 1937, I had no fixed home and no possessions which would not conveniently go on a porter's barrow.I never aspired to be a great traveller. I was simply a young man, typical of my age; we travelled as a matter of course. I rejoice that I went when the going was good.