Skeletons for Sadness. ** [Author SIGNED copy.**]

UK,8vo p/back original,SIGNED,1st edn.[A paperback original,it's first appearance
in this format/issue.Paperback original denotes the first format and its first appearance in print of the book/title.Paperbacks usually follow on from the HB edn,but can be published at the same time as the HB edn,but p/back originals are published prior to any other format.] NFINE.No owner inscrptn,but author's neat,handwritten,blue ink dedication and signature: 'For Grahame With best wishes Ewen' and author's signature below his printed name on title page.No dw/dj,a p/back original,wraps as issued.Bright,crisp,clean,glossy laminated, colour pictorial illustrated wraps with blue+white colour map of Falkland Islands to reverse of upper wrap; with negligible shelf-wear and creasing to edges and corners,and
minimal reading creases to spine/backstrip - only partially read.Top+fore-edges bright and clean; contents bright,tight and pristine.UK,8vo wraps,11-346pp [paginated] prologue,23 chapters+epilogue,6 water-colour(?) illus
and b/w line coastal+wildlife sketches all
by Heather Cooper,throughout the text and the book,13 b/w maps by Southby-Tailyour; plus [unpaginated] half-title,SIGNED+
dedicated title page,quotation/extract [from The Master Mariner,Book Two: Nicholas Monsarrat],a Contents list/table,acknowledgements,1pp potted biography of author to the rear,followed by 5pp publisher's adverts (1pp non-illustrated,of author's other works/titles,and 4pp of b/w thumbnail illusrated other nautical related titles.)
Edward Casement,sailing towards Cape Horn and the Pacific in his ketch Nomad,calls in at the Falkland Islands in September 1980.Things do not go according to plan and,having lost his crew,he spends longer in the islands than intended. Eventually he sails on charter for the island's Governor in the company of a newly arrived
English nurse,visiting the far-flung settlements around the islands.
But who is Heather Cooper? Why does she
display such a keen interest in making detailed sketches of the wildlife and the coastal habitats? And what lies behind her interest in Edward himself? In an atmosphere of growing intrigue,not all is as it seems.Then comes the Argentine invasion,and Edward and Heather find
themselves drawn into the ensuing conflict - but who is on which side,and who can be trusted?
This is a story of love,espionage,a yacht,and a war in the South Atlantic.The fiction is firmly anchored in fact,based on the author's own detailed knowledge of sailing in wild waters, maritime special forces,and the Falkland Islands.
In the late 1970's,while commanding a Royal Marines detachment in the Falkland Islands,Ewen Southby-Tailyour charted the island's coasts,and during the 1982 Falklands campaign his knowledge and experience proved invaluable to the British forces.On retiring from the Royal Marines in 1992 he was employed by the Foreign Office in the Balkans.He now lives locally in south Devon and sails a 12-ton gaff cutter,'Black Velvet'.