Australian Rare

Happy Valley – Patrick White

Nobel Laureate Patrick White had Happy Valley published in the UK in 1939. During his life he refused to allow the book to be re-published. So, it took to this issue published by the unusual Text Publishing of Melbourne in 2012 for it to appear as a second edition.

Octavo, 407 pages plus catalogue, decorative endpapers. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket.

White had spent time at a station in New South Wales as a jackaroo. He was not cut out for it. Nevertheless, the experience provided rather useful in writing this book … he had lived a colourful life to that stage and that would continue. Drawing on writers he had met and admired – Joyce, Woolf, DHL etc this is a complex novel of an exceptional standard.

Patrick White and his Happy Valley full of character and intrigue.

$40.00

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The Men That God Forgot – Richard Butler

First edition published by Hutchinson’s London in 1975. Octavo, 254 pages plus bibliography, end paper maps. Very good condition.

The most remote penal colony in the world was Sarah Island on the west coast of Van Diemen’s Land. In 1833 after eleven years of misery it was decided to close it down and move the convicts to Port Arthur. Ten convicts were commissioned with the task of constructing a Brig to make the voyage around the coast. They saw their chance and seized the vessel and made their escape … but as always there is more to the story.

A well researched highly fact backed novelisation – super read.

The story of the final escape form Sarah’s Island through the Gates of Hell

$30.00

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The Web of Time – Lee Harding – First Edition 1980

A very nice copy of the first edition of this Science Fiction offering by Australian writer Lee Harding.

Published by Cassell in1980. Octavo, 168 pages all in very good condition bar ownership signature at front ends. Perfect and glorious dust jacket the image of which gives a clue to the nature of the story or at least one of the key props.

Australian Science Fiction from a master of the craft.

$30.00

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Biggles in Australia – Captain W.E. Johns

Biggles and his Air police foil a communist plot in OZ. Where is he now when we need him? A little foxed but not Biggles!

Published by Hodder and Stoughton, second impression 1956 a year after the first. Octavo, 188 pages, a few marks and a pretty good dust jacket.

Scarce and our favourite Biggles

SO SORRY SOLD

$50.00

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A Queensland Pair – A Story of Forty Year Ago – Thomas Symon – First and Only 1912 – Extremely Scarce

A soft cover only published in this form. Printed at Brisbane at the Sapsford Printers Adelaide Street. Compact, perfect bound octavo, 184 pages, some foxing nearer the ends generally quite clean and a worthy copy as scarce as hen’s teeth. A few coloured pencil marks around chapter XXII when things get a bit amorous. A bit mind you – this is 1912.

We think effectively self published the authors only book – he was a teacher at Ipswich may have retired before this work.

The brief Preface … “The Following story is founded on personal experience; and, as far as possible, without exaggeration … The characters are real: and as true to life as I could make them …”

Scarce Queensland novel and a bit of a curiosity.

$60.00

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Billabong Riders – Mary Grant Bruce – 1952

This is the first UK edition published in 1952, having been published in Australia in 1942.

An absolutely clean copy with a perfect dust jacket … given the time period of over 70 year something special .. would make great gift.

Octavo, 192 pages, frontispiece like the jacket cover. We have gushed about the quality, put up with a previous owners book label at the front ends.

This is all about the riders of Billabong the authors special place that defines real Australia to many … full of character and characters. Understand it before tall buildings take over.

One for the bush or the curious city dweller.

$35.00

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Happy Valley – Patrick White

The Men That God Forgot – Richard Butler

The Web of Time – Lee Harding – First Edition 1980

Biggles in Australia – Captain W.E. Johns

A Queensland Pair – A Story of Forty Year Ago – Thomas Symon – First and Only 1912 – Extremely Scarce

Billabong Riders – Mary Grant Bruce – 1952

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