WEIR, Donald. Balkan Saga. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd. 1937. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s orange cloth lettered in green to the spine, in the marvellous wraparound dust jacket designed by ‘Mackay’. A very good copy, the cloth clean and bright, just gently bumped to board edges and pushed at spine tips. The binding tight and a trifle rolled, the topstain bright, the other edges untrimmed. Ink ownership signature to front endpaper, else clean and bright throughout. The dust jacket unclipped (7s 6d net), with a 2cm closed tear to the front panel top edge, one or two much smaller tears, the spine head and tail gently rubbed and bumped, but all generally obscured by the busy jacket artwork. A presentable example overall.
An uncommon celebration of the melting pot of interwar Europe, following two plucky young men who travel 11,000 miles over four and a half restless months in a 20bhp Vauxhall 20-60 in the summer of 1934. While of its time, the work is instantly readable as the likeable pair are mistaken for Anarchists in Mussolini’s Italy, for escaped lunatics in Hungary, and for spies in Yugoslavia. They fraternise with tzigane travellers and ‘earnest enough Nazis’, all the while with a conscious understanding of the tension building in every corner of the continent. An excellent window of both interwar Europe and indeed of early motor vehicle travel, the volume laced with various hints and tips for the prospective adventurer.
WEIR, Donald. Balkan Saga. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd. 1937. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s orange cloth lettered in green to the spine, in the marvellous wraparound dust jacket designed by ‘Mackay’. A very good copy, the cloth clean and bright, just gently bumped to board edges and pushed at spine tips. The binding tight and a trifle rolled, the topstain bright, the other edges untrimmed. Ink ownership signature to front endpaper, else clean and bright throughout. The dust jacket unclipped (7s 6d net), with a 2cm closed tear to the front panel top edge, one or two much smaller tears, the spine head and tail gently rubbed and bumped, but all generally obscured by the busy jacket artwork. A presentable example overall.
An uncommon celebration of the melting pot of interwar Europe, following two plucky young men who travel 11,000 miles over four and a half restless months in a 20bhp Vauxhall 20-60 in the summer of 1934. While of its time, the work is instantly readable as the likeable pair are mistaken for Anarchists in Mussolini’s Italy, for escaped lunatics in Hungary, and for spies in Yugoslavia. They fraternise with tzigane travellers and ‘earnest enough Nazis’, all the while with a conscious understanding of the tension building in every corner of the continent. An excellent window of both interwar Europe and indeed of early motor vehicle travel, the volume laced with various hints and tips for the prospective adventurer.
