KEMP, Peter. Mine Were of Trouble. London: Cassell. 1957. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s red cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in the dust jacket. A very good copy. The cloth clean and bright, the binding tight and square. The textblock edges evenly spotted, with some fairly consistently light scattered foxing and patchiness throughout, more severe at times, but often clean. From the library of Bruce Marshall with his ink inscription to front endpaper. The dust jacket unclipped, with chips, small loss and creases around the spine head. Other corners gently rubbed with one or two small nicks.
‘A remarkably fair account’ of the Spanish Civil War by the author, who fought for the Nationalists. The first in the author’s three volumes of memoir, a life evidently so full of encounters and ordeals across the world—from Britain to Bali, Albania to Zaire—he worked extensively for the SOE in the Second World War—that three volumes were required. This first volume follows closely his experiences in the Spanish Civil War as bizarro George Orwell, on the other side; his initial entry into the country with his ‘deplorable tendency to simper’, and his decision, physical and political, to join the Nationalist efforts. Kemp fought through most of the War before a mortar strike almost blew his jaw clean off. On leaving Spain, he briefly met General Franco, recounted in the final pages, whom he evidently admired with some gusto. Uncommon.
KEMP, Peter. Mine Were of Trouble. London: Cassell. 1957. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s red cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in the dust jacket. A very good copy. The cloth clean and bright, the binding tight and square. The textblock edges evenly spotted, with some fairly consistently light scattered foxing and patchiness throughout, more severe at times, but often clean. From the library of Bruce Marshall with his ink inscription to front endpaper. The dust jacket unclipped, with chips, small loss and creases around the spine head. Other corners gently rubbed with one or two small nicks.
‘A remarkably fair account’ of the Spanish Civil War by the author, who fought for the Nationalists. The first in the author’s three volumes of memoir, a life evidently so full of encounters and ordeals across the world—from Britain to Bali, Albania to Zaire—he worked extensively for the SOE in the Second World War—that three volumes were required. This first volume follows closely his experiences in the Spanish Civil War as bizarro George Orwell, on the other side; his initial entry into the country with his ‘deplorable tendency to simper’, and his decision, physical and political, to join the Nationalist efforts. Kemp fought through most of the War before a mortar strike almost blew his jaw clean off. On leaving Spain, he briefly met General Franco, recounted in the final pages, whom he evidently admired with some gusto. Uncommon.
