Conscript "Tich"

First edition, first printing. Published by W. & R. Chambers in London, 1917. This is a very good copy. This copy is with the only commercially available dust wrapper. Printed on thin wartime paper, has a subtle crease to the middle of the front panel and rear panels. There is slight wear at the corners and major separation at the spine tips. The centre of the spine is marred by a central split, dividing the two halves in an open but clean split. It has not been price clipped. The original publisher's boards are slightly bumped at the corners, with the blood-red tooling bright and fully intact. The wartime paper stock is fragile, but markedly bright at the text blocks and incredibly, mostly free from foxing with some slight spots present. The gutters are intact and by no means separated. This copy is free from previous owner's ink and is, overall, in very good condition. An incredibly scarce title, particularly with the illustrious dust wrapper. The Worlds News, on Saturday 4th May, 1918, writes: 'An excellent picture of life in the New Army is given in this very interesting story. It is clear that the author has modelled his characters from the life, in spite of his guarded remark in the foreword that "one battalion is very like another, coincidences will occur, and in an army of five million men types are common." "Tich" (his real name is Albert Augusus Hibberd" rings true. He is a working man with decided political views on the important of Labour with a capital "L". We meet him first at the Tribunals, in company with Ainsworth, head clerk in his firm; Syamtom. an actor; and others, and follow his (and their) fortune in the "Middleshires" step by step up to the time when "Tich" gets a Blighty wound, his discharge and a D.C.M.'. …