Set of Seven Uniformly Bound Secret Service Series Novels Includes The Man with the Clubfoot (1918), The Mysterious Miss Morrisot (1930), Death Answers the Bell (1931), The Clock Ticks On (1933), The Portcullis Room (1934), The Spider's Touch (1936.) and The Fox Prowls (1939).

Williams, Valentine

Published by P. F. Collier & Son Collier, New York

About this Item

Demy octavo, [18.75cm/7.5inches], full gilt-embossed walnut-coloured cloth sans dust jackets. Please feel free to ask for particulars and/or additional photographs. . Valentine Williams (1883 1946) was a journalist and mystery writer. He was the eldest son of the chief editor at Reuters. He replaced Austin Harrison as the Reuters correspondent in Berlin in 1905, aged 21. Harold Nicolson met him in connection with events at Versailles and described in a diary entry that "He is far too intelligent to be employed by such a paper" (the Daily Mail). It was during this period that he began writing thrillers and around 1926 he gave up his post as Foreign Editor of the Daily Mail to pursue a full-time career as an author. Williams was too old for active service at the outbreak of World War II. He joined the Secret Intelligence Service, vetting potential new recruits such as Malcolm Muggeridge and Kim Philby. He was transferred to the British Embassy in Washington in 1941 but soon after left for Hollywood, where he worked as a scriptwriter for Twentieth-Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. In exceptionally good condition.

Seller Inventory # 29815

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Set of Seven Uniformly Bound Secret Service Series Novels Includes The Man with the Clubfoot (1918), The Mysterious Miss Morrisot (1930), Death Answers the Bell (1931), The Clock Ticks On (1933), The Portcullis Room (1934), The Spider's Touch (1936.) and The Fox Prowls (1939).
• Publisher: P. F. Collier & Son Collier, New York
• Binding: Hardcover
• Dust Jacket Condition: no dust jackets
• Seller catalogs:
  • Espionage Mystery