Masquerade Hardback - 1979

A tight and unmarked third printing- 8 1/2 x 11 inches 32 pages Jonathan Cape, London UK."A fascinating little mystery. At the time of this book's publication, the entire world devoured it in hopes of uncovering the buried treasure - it took a few years and led to much controversy, as explained in Bamber Gascoigne's follow-up book Quest for the Golden Hare. (Although Wikipedia can elaborate on the much greater controversy that developed years later).- A fascinating little mystery. At the time of this book's publication, the entire world devoured it in hopes of uncovering the buried treasure - it took a few years and led to much controversy, as explained in Bamber Gascoigne's follow-up book Quest for the Golden Hare. (Although Wikipedia can elaborate on the much greater controversy that developed years later). Certain books are just shot through with nostalgia, to the point where all you have to do is open them, and you're transported back to childhood. Masquerade is one of those books for me, I had the great luck to have been living on an RAF base in the UK when this came out, and my elementary school class fell immediately to solving it. We were quite unsuccessful, but it was the first time that I'd ever felt any level of camaraderie when it came to my classmates reading with me. It was a magical time. Looking at it from an adult's eyes did bring it down slightly from the wonder that was, to the book I hold in my hands, but it still makes me yearn to share it with a wide-eyed little one. (Maybe I'll have grandchildren who want to be read to, unlike their parents!) The illustrations are as fine as I remembered."