The Golden Carpet; Published by Permission of the War Office

London: The Golden Cockerel Press, 1943. Near Fine. Large 8vo, 10 x 7 3/8 inches (255 x 187 mm), 128 pp., printed in 14 pt. Perpetua type on Arnold's mould-made paper. 500 numbered copies of which this is number 63, bound in quarter green morocco with cream canvas sides bound by Sangorski and Sutcliffe (stamp on first free flyleaf); t.e.g, rest uncut. Frontispiece reproduction of a bronze bust of the author by Lanyi; endpaper with map Levant-Caspian Front by the author with travel route from Nathanya to Baghdad marked in red. Spine shows uniform fading, internally clean and bright throughout and binding firm. Inscription in ink on second flyleaf.

[Pertelote 155]. «The Golden Carpet is one of those books born to fame, richly endowed with all the elements which go to make a classic. Of topical interest and permanent value as historical literature, this swift vivid account of one of the most romantic episodes of modern warfare will live, with its author and the characters he describes, as a picture of our present kaleidoscopic life and times.» [Pertelote 155]

SOMERSET DeCHAIR (1911 - 1995) was an English author, politician and poet. He was the son of an admiral and he himself enlisted and was mobilized on 24 August 1939, a few days before the United Kingdom's entry into World War II. He served as an intelligence officer with the 4th Cavalry Brigade during the Anglo-Iraqi War and the Syrian Campaign where he was wounded on 21 June 1941. This book is his own "story of our fabled march from the Mediterranean to the Tigris to capture Baghdad" (preface).