Signed and inscribed by the ghostwriter Broadbridge

Trevor, Charles [Barrett, Edward (Broadbridge, Pseud)] ~ Drums of Asia : Double Signed By Broadbridge

FIRST UK PRINTING : Lovat Dickinson Limited, London : 1934

The First UK Printing published by Lovat Dickinson Limited, London in 1934. 8vo., black publisher's cloth, ruled in red to upper board and lettered in red along the backstrip with publisher's device to foot; upper edge top-stain red; together in the unclipped pictorial wrapper printed with text in blue and decorative device featuring a gold eagle printed to the upper panel in blue, gold and red; The BOOK is in Very Good or better condition. Nicked and lightly chipped to head and foot of spine with a little subsequent little loss to the cloth; text block with a slight shelf lean; the cloth a little bubbled to the lower hinge; some light corner creasing and a touch offset to the endpapers; scratch marks to the outer edges; The WRAPPER is in Very Good condition : panels and outer edges of flaps toned; some minor scratches along the spine, nicked and chipped at head and foot, with approximately 2cm of loss to the spine, just touching the title lettering. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First edition, first printing, stamped 'Colonial Edition' to the title page. This copy signed by the ghostwriter Broadbridge to the title page, who has also provided an inscription to the front free endpaper: "For Douglas, For what is it worth, [?], October 1936." A previous owner has further provided a typed list of names, with a comparison of fictional person and place names, alongside their corresponding real ones, which has been pasted to the inside front board. Further annotations, likely in Broadbridge's hand, have been provided to the contents page and at Parts I and IV, correcting Mexico to California, and Bokistan to Afghanistan. A fascinating copy of this pre-war thriller, which caused a huge stir at M15 upon publication. Written under the pseudonym "Charles Trevor", the information contained wherein led the secret services to suspect that the author was in fact Edward Barrett, the former Commissioner of the Shanghai Municipal Police. Barrett had previously been a novelist before he was recruited to head the SMP's India intelligence activities in Shanghai, and it was this, coupled with the opening part of the novel (which sees German diplomats enticing Indian activists to plot against the British) which aroused suspicion. With concerns from the India office that Barrett might be disclosing sensitive information, the India Office and M15 in London attempted to halt the publication entirely, but after discussions with the publisher, edits were made, and it was discovered a) that much of the information was already in the public domain and b) that they had the wrong Edward Barrett. The source was actually a professional writer by the name of Broadbridge, who had been given the information via a different man, who had been in service with the West Kent Regiment on India's North West frontier during WW1 (and who had never visited Shanghai). Despite the edits, the resulting work is a riveting romp across Europe, which covers such areas as Mexico, Germany, Switzerland and India during the First World War, where plots and schemes are pitted against the British Intelligence Service, culminating in a dramatic conclusion set in a thinly-veiled Afghanistan ('Bokistan'). An incredibly scarce copy of this spy novel, rare indeed with these attributes

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good
JACKET: Very Good