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This copy is, as with most of this author?s books, undated so it is assumed that this is a reprint. Bound in III brown cloth covered boards with black titling to the spine and upper board this copy is in near fine, unmarked condition, save for some spotting to the outer page edges. The unclipped dust wrapper has some typical spotting to the inside which is not apparent from the outside so still very good plus. This is just one of many Westerman titles I am selling on this site. Percy Francis Westerman (1876 ? 22 February 1959) was a prolific author of children's literature, many of his books are adventures with military and naval themes. His writing career allegedly began with a sixpence bet made with his wife that he could write a better story than the one he was reading to his son, who was at the time ill with chickenpox. His first book for boys, A Lad of Grit, was published by Blackie and Son Limited in 1908. In the same year, Baden-Powell founded the Scouting movement, which strongly influenced many of Westerman's books ? he was a particularly keen supporter of the Sea Scouts. He published a further three books in 1911, which were so successful that he gave up his Admiralty appointment that year to become a full-time author. He lived on board a houseboat ? a converted Thames barge ? on the River Frome at Wareham in Dorset, where he wrote the majority of his books. An early book, The Flying Submarine (published in 1912) may indicate Westerman's genre. This boys' adventure novel was about a mysterious man from a South American country. He was an inventor, who had discovered a new kind of lighter-than-air gas that he called ?helia?, which was much lighter than helium or hydrogen. He used helia in many inventions, including back-packs that could help a man float in the air or fly upwards, and in the remarkable titular submarine that could, when enough helia was used, fly! Eventually he used his flying submarine to win a war between his South American country and its belligerent neighbour. It is highly likely that Westerman derived the idea for this super-weapon from Jules Verne's Terror, the speedboat, submarine, automobile, or aircraft superweapon invented by Verne's arch-hero Robur in Master of the World and The Clipper of the Clouds. Ref III 2.
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