The Gate Hangs Well - a Kenya diary

1957. Second impression. 234pp. plus 5 pages of advertisments for other books. James Stapleton was born in the Midlands, and after serving with the RAF in the Second World War he sailed for East Africa with his wife and two young daughters. This book is an amusing and interesrting account of his farming in Kenya, both before and during the advent of Mau Mau. The book is bound in the original maroon boards with yellow titling on the spine. The case of the book is in very good condition with light bumping to the spine ends and fading up to about 3/4" of the top of the spine and 1" of the bottom of the spine. The contents are tight and clean with foxing around the edges of the first few pages, including the title-page. There is fairly heavy foxing to the top and fore edges of the text block and this has seeped into the top and fore margins of some of the pages. A name has been written on the front free endpaper. The unclipped dustwrapper has shelf wear and some soiling and the spine is slightly faded. Small pieces are missing from the corners and top rear edge and up to about 1" is missing from around the top of the spine ansd about 1 1/4" from the bottom of the spine and part of the rear bottom edge. There are several tears on the edges, some with surrounding creasing, and a tear of about 4" on the rear spine edge. This tear and some of the other larger tears have been repaired on the reverse with document repair tape (not sellotape). The jacket is covered with removeable clear plastic for protection.…