Blitz Neil (2 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Brand New. 1st edition. 240 pages. 9.25x6.25x0.50 inches. In Stock.

12pp., 4to. On the rectos of 12 leaves, stitched with red thread into yellow wrappers with crude design of airplanes in action. From the papers of the Labour MP Tom Driberg, and with 'Mr Driberg' in pencil at head of front wrap. In a preface dated 21 August 1941 Knight refers to 'twelve fateful and ferocious months', and criticises 'a deplorable lack of vision and imagination everywhere. It was necessary for the Germans to inflict on London one of their severest and most successful attacks before we realised the necessity of co-ordination in the Fire-fighting Services of this country.' Knight's preface is followed by a two-page letter, purportedly written on18 August 1941 from '"Somewhere" in Whitehall, S.W.1.', by 'A Son of John Bull'. This concludes: 'It is possible the pubication of FIVE HUNDRED HOURS IN THE BLITZ will bring you no new friends. None the less I thank you for it.' The text is preceded by a note reading: 'Most of what follows is culled from rough notes written "on the spot" of the blitz, and the reader's indulgence is requested for the scrappy nature of the same'. There is a full page of things 'Seen and heard in the Blitz'; a full-page poem titled 'Reflections in the Blitz'; another full-page poem titled 'The Fire Watcher', and a final full-page 'Dictionary of Terms used by Fire-Watchers'. Excessively scarce: no copy in the British Library or on COPAC, the latter listing twelve titles by Knight, all published in the 1930s, ranging from 'Intimate Glimpses of Mysterious Tibet and Neighbouring Countries' (1930) to 'Sex and Rejuvenation' (1933). From the titles of the other works a distinct pro-German bias is to be discerned.…