Children of Tender Years

First edition, first printing (true first). 232pp. In black cloth covered-boards with gilt lettering to spine. (Boards strong, sharp-edged, and clean, just a little bruised at spine ends). There is a small mark on the front free endpaper, and a hint of page toning. In its original dust jacket (with a tiny chip on the lower leading corner). The dust jacket is now protected in an archival quality mylar wrapper, fitted without use of adhesives or tape. Ted Allbeury was a British author, writing mainly espionage fiction. He served as an intelligence office in the Special Operations Executive during the second world war, and is said to have been the only British Secret Agent who parachuted into Nazi Germany during the war and remained there until the Allied armies arrived. He wrote over forty novels, often drawing on his war time experience, some of which were published under the pen names Patrick Kelly and Richard Butler.