854. Le Carre, John: The Night Manager

Published by Alfred a Knopf, 1993

1st US hardback edition, with jacket, in fine condition. Enter the new world of espionage, where the skills forged by generations of spies during the darkest days of the Cold War are put to even more terrifying use. Penetrate the secret world of ruthless arms dealers and drug smugglers who have risen to unthinkable power and wealth. The sinister master of them all is an untouchable Englishman named Roper, the charming, unstoppable ruler of a corrupt world all his own. Slipping into this maze of peril is a former British soldier, Jonathan Pine, who knows Roper well enough to hate him more than he hates any other man on earth. Now personal vengeance is only part of the reason Pine is willing to help the men at Whitehall bring Roper down.

855. Le Carre, John: The Night Manager

Published by Hodder & Stoughton, London. 1993

Hardback 1st UK edition in fine condition and SIGNED by the author on the title page. Jonathan is the orphan son of a hero soldier and a veteran of secret operations in South Armagh. Disenchanted by the army and his marriage, he works for the Palace Hotel, Zurich. There he meets Richard Roper, an illegal arms trader. He must bring Roper to book.

Published by Hodder & Stoughton, London. 1999

1st edition UK hardback in very good condition. Flat signed by the author at the title page. The book leans slightly. The dust wrapper is a little rubbed at the top and bottom edges with a small nick at the top but is otherwise very good and is not clipped. There are no previous owner names or marks. A corporate lawyer is brutally killed on a hillside in Turkey, and the reader is transported into a disparate but compelling series of events, taking us from a Devon seaside resort through the lethal world of the Russian Mafiosi to a tense climax in the High Caucasus.

323. Lessing, Doris: The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five

Published by Jonathan Cape, London. 1980.

1st edition hardback. The book is near fine in condition in a like price-clipped dust wrapper. There are no previous owner names or marks. The second in Doris Lessing's visionary novel cycle "Canopus in Argos: Archives". It is a mix of fable, futuristic fantasy and pseudo-documentary accounts of 20th-century history.

2415. Lessing, Doris: The Diaries of Jane Somers

Published by Michael Joseph, London, 1984

1st edition UK hardback in very good condition. There are no previous owner names or marks. The dust wrapper is slightly sunned at the spine but is otherwise very good and not price clipped.First published in 1984, under a pseudonym, as 'The Diary of a Good Neighbour' and 'If the Old Could …', now published as 'The Diaries of Jane Somers', this is in many ways classic Lessing. As resonant with social and political themes as 'The Golden Notebook', Lessing returns to the realism of her early fiction with the wisdom and experience of maturity. The diaries introduce us to Jane, an intelligent and beautiful magazine editor concerned with success, clothes and comfort. But her real inadequacy is highlighted when first her husband, then her mother, die from cancer and Jane feels strangely removed. In an attempt to fill this void, she befriends ninety-something Maudie, whose poverty and squalor contrast so radically with the glamour and luxury of the magazine world. The two gradually come to depend on each other - Maudie delighting Jane with tales of London in the 1920s and Jane trying to care for the rapidly deteriorating old woman. 'The Diary of Jane Somers' contrasts the helplessness of the elderly with that of the young as Jane is forced to care for her nineteen-year-old drop-out niece Kate who is struggling with an emotional breakdown. Jane realises that she understands young people as little as she so recently did the old.

859. Lette, Kathy: The Llama Parlour

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing, 1992

Hardback 1st edition. Very slight nick to top edge of otherwise fine unclipped d/w. The book is fine. When Kat Kennedy lands a part in the cult Hollywood sitcom "Dinks", she leaves her native Australia and finds herself plunged into a wild and raunchy American party. Can she stand up to bitchy superstar Rondah Rivers and win the affections of the delectable Pierce Scanlan, despite his drug habit?

860. Lette, Kathy: Foetal Attraction

Published by Picador, 1993

Hardback 1st edition. Very good in like price clipped d/w. Yellow boards with bright pink end papers. Madeline Wolfe has given up her home and her hemisphere to come to London to live with the British man in her life. She soon discovers that being an Australian is currently passé, and sun-tans now have the social cachet of a heavy drinker. And then she discovers that she is pregnant.

861. Lette, Kathy: Alter Ego

Published by Picador, 1998

Hardback 1st edition in very good + condition in a very good dust wrapper. Having an affair with a younger man is exhausting. How can Becky keep herself young without drinking embalming fluid?

862. Levin, Ira: The Boys from Brazil

Published by Michael Joseph, London. 1976

1st edition UK hardback. The book leans a little at the spine but is otherwise very good. Slight browning of the page edges, it has no previous owner names or inscriptions. The unclipped dust wrapper is in very good condition and retains the £3.50 net price. In this classic thriller, Ira Levin imagines Dr Josef Mengele's nightmarish plot to restore the Third Reich. Alive and hiding in South America, thirty years after the end of the Second World War, Mengele gathers a group of former colleagues for a sinister project - the creation of the Fourth Reich. Ageing Nazi hunter Yakov Lieberman is informed of the plot but before he hears the evidence, his source is killed . . . Spanning continents and inspired by true events, what follows is one of Levin's most masterful tales, both timeless and chillingly plausible.

2199. Lively, Penelope: Moon Tiger

Published by Grove Press, New York. 1988

1st edition US hardback in near fine condition. There is a previous sellers sticker at the bottom of the front paste otherwise fine. The dust wrapper is also fine and unclipped. Claudia Hampton, a beautiful, famous writer, lies dying in hospital. But, as the nurses tend to her with quiet condescension, she is plotting her greatest work: 'a history of the world ... and in the process, my own'. Gradually she re-creates the rich mosaic of her life and times; conjuring up those she has known. There is Gordon, her adored brother; Jasper, the charming, untrustworthy lover and father of Lisa, her cool, conventional daughter; and Tom, her one great love, both found and lost in wartime Egypt. Penelope Lively's Booker Prize-winning novel weaves an exquisite mesh of memories, flashbacks and shifting voices, in a haunting story of loss and desire.

863. Llewellyn, Robert: The Man on Platform 5

Published by Hodder & Stoughton, 1998

Hardback 1st edition. Fine unclipped d/w fine book. Gresham and Eupheme have always fought. So when they see the pathetic, badly-dressed trainspotter it is inevitable they will argue over him. Is he doomed to eternal nerdiness or could he be taught to appreciate finer things? Eupheme bets he can and in time for Gresham's engagement party.

864. Llewellyn, Sam: The Shadow in the Sands

Published by 1998 Headline, London.

1st edition hardback in very good condition. There are no previous owner names or marks. The dust wrapper is unclipped but slightly rubbed and chipped at the edges. Follows Erskine Childers' classic "The Riddle of the Sands". April 1903, Charlie Webb is a professional racing yacht skipper, a working class hero of all the picture papers. When the Duke of Leominster invites him to a secret meeting in London with a mysterious gentleman named Carruthers, he finds himself searching for a Napoleonic wreck loaded with bullion.

2119. Ludlum, Robert: The Bourne Identity

Published by Granada, London. 1980

1st UK edition hardback. The book is near fine in a near fine but price clipped dust wrapper. Scarce. Introducing Jason Bourne. He was dragged from the sea, his body riddled with bullets. There are a few clues: a frame of microfilm surgically implanted beneath the skin of his hip; evidence that plastic surgery has altered his face; strange things he says in his delirium, which could be code words. And a number on the film negative that leads to a bank account in Zurich, four million dollars, and a name for the amnesiac: Jason Bourne. Now he is running for his life. A man with an unknown past and an uncertain future, the target of assassins and at the heart of a deadly puzzle. He's fighting for survival and no one can help him - except the one woman who once wanted to escape him...

Published by Grafton, London. 1990

1st edition hardback in very good condition. The dust wrapper is not clipped but is very slightly sunned at the spine and a little rubbed at the edges otherwise also very good. There are no previous owner names or marks. The world's two deadliest spies in the ultimate showdown. At a small-town carnival two men, each mysteriously summoned by telegram, witness a bizarre killing. The telegrams are signed Jason Bourne. Only they know Bourne's true identity and understand the telegram is really a message from Bourne's mortal enemy, Carlos, known also as the Jackal, the world's deadliest and most elusive terrorist. And furthermore, they know that the Jackal wants: a final confrontation with Bourne. Now David Webb, professor of Oriental studies, husband, and father, must do what he hoped he would never have to do again -- assume the terrible identity of Jason Bourne. His plan is simple: to infiltrate the politically and economically Medusan group and use himself as bait to lure the cunning Jackal into a deadly trap -- a trap from which only one of them will escape.

865. Macbeth, George: Anna's Book

Published by Jonathan Cape, 1983

Hardback 1st edition. Fine unclipped d/w has very minor edge wear. Book is fine. Review slip laid in. A Historical novel based on previously unpublished documents. Tells of the dramatic Swedish North-Pole attempt by balloon in 1897.

2109. Maclean, Alistair: Puppet on a Chain

Published by Collins, London, 1969

Hardback 1st UK edition. Both the book and the unclipped dust wrapper are in near fine condition. There are no previous owner names and very little sign of wear to the jacket just the odd small chip here and there at the edge. Paul Sherman of Interpol's Narcotics Bureau flies to Amsterdam on the trail of a dope king. With enormous skill the atmosphere is built up: Amsterdam with its canals and high houses; stolid police; psychopaths; women in distress and above all - murder.

866. Maclean, Alistair: San Andreas

Published by Collins, 1984

1st edition UK hardback, with dust wrapper, in very good condition. There are no courts of law on the high seas and no independent witnesses. According to the Geneva Convention, ships with red crosses on the side guarantee them immunity from enemy attack. The "San Andreas" is a hospital ship that comes under attack during which the Captain and Chief Officer are injured. Archie McKinnon, the Bosun, takes charge but he is aware of a sinister presence on board.

867. Maclean, Alistair: Athabasca

Published by Collins, 1980

Very good 1st edition hardback in a very good dust wrapper. Two of the biggest oilfields in the world, one in Alaska, the other in Canada, are simultaneously threatened with sabotage. The oil flow could be interrupted in any one of thousands of places down the trans-Alaskan pipeline.

2295. Maine, G.F. (editor): The Works of Oscar Wilde

Published by Collins, London. 1949

New collected edition hardback 1st reprint. Stories, plays, poems & essays, 1119 pp and bibliography. Some light soiling but generally very good in a very good unclipped dust wrapper.

412. Mallinson, Allan: Man of War

Published by Bantam Press, London. 2007.

1st edition hardback in fine condition. There are no previous owner names or inscriptions. The dustwrapper is also in fine condition, it has not been price clipped and still retains the original £17.99 net price. The ninth book in the Matthew Hervey series.

1203. Markham, Robert (pseudonym of Kingsley Amis): Colonel Sun: A James Bond adventure

Published by The Companion Book Club/Hamlyn, 1968

Hardback, book club edition. Blue cloth with gilt titles in a green panel at the spine, top page edges stained green, map illustrated end papers, fine. There are two small closed tears at the top edge of the rear dust wrapper panel and slightly scuffed at the bottom of the spine otherwise this too is fine and unclipped. Kingsley Amis writing as Robert Markham. A James Bond 007 adventure. Bond is the victim of a plot by Colonel Sun of the People's Liberation Army of China. M has been abducted, but Bond appears to be the target of this plot to discredit the British Secret Service.

1202. Markham, Robert (pseudonym of Kingsley Amis): Colonel Sun: A James Bond adventure

Published by The Companion Book Club/Hamlyn, 1968

Hardback, book club edition in faux leather with gilt decoration, page edges stained brown, map illustrated end papers. No d/w. Two small chips to the bottom edge of the front board otherwise fine. Kingsley Amis writing as Robert Markham. A James Bond 007 adventure. Bond is the victim of a plot by Colonel Sun of the People's Liberation Army of China. M has been abducted, but Bond appears to be the target of this plot to discredit the British Secret Service.

868. Marquez, Gabriel Garcia: News of a Kidnapping

Published by Jonathan Cape, 1997

Hardback 1st UK edition. Nr mint in like wrapper. Pablo Escobar: billionaire drugs baron; ruthless manipulator, brutal killer and "jefe" of the infamous Medellín cartel. A man whose importance in the international drug trade and renown for his charitable work among the poor brought him influence and power in his home country of Colombia, and the unwanted attention of the American courts. Terrified of the new Colombian President's determination to extradite him to America, Escobar found the best bargaining tools he could find: hostages. In the winter of 1990, ten relatives of Colombian politicians, mostly women, were abducted and held hostage as Escobar attempted to strong-arm the government into blocking his extradition. Two died, the rest survived, and from their harrowing stories Márquez retells, with vivid clarity, the terror and uncertainty of those dark and volatile months.

869. Marquez, Gabriel Garcia: The Autumn of the Patriarch

Published by Jonathan Cape, 1977

Hardback very slightly sunned to spine panel of price clipped d/w. Otherwise fine/fine. UK 1st edition. As the citizens of an unnamed Caribbean nation creep through the dusty corridors of the presidential palace in search of their tyrannical leader, they cannot comprehend that the frail and withered man laying dead on the floor can be the self-styled General of the Universe. Their egocentric, maniacally violent leader, known for serving up traitors to dinner guests and drowning young children at sea, can surely not die the humiliating death of a mere mortal? Tracing the demands of a man whose egocentric excesses mask the loneliness of isolation and whose lies have become so ingrained that they are indistinguishable from truth, Márquez has created a fantastical portrait of despotism that rings with an air of reality.

2389. Marquez, Gabriel Garcia: Love in the Time of Cholera

Published by Jonathan Cape, London. 1988

1st edition reprint, UK hardback in very good condition. There are no previous owner names. The dust wrapper is price clipped. Fifty-one years, nine months and four days have passed since Fermina Daza rebuffed hopeless romantic Florentino Ariza's impassioned advances and married Dr Juvenal Urbino instead. During that half-century, Flornetino has fallen into the arms of many delighted women, but has loved none but Fermina. Having sworn his eternal love to her, he lives for the day when he can court her again. When Fermina's husband is killed trying to retrieve his pet parrot from a mango tree, Florentino seizes his chance to declare his enduring love. But can young love find new life in the twilight of their lives?

870. Maugham, W. Somerset: The Selected Novels: Vol 1

Published by Heinemann, 1953

Hardback 1st thus, a few tears to d/w but loss is minimal and jacket is bright & clean. Blue cloth boards with gilt, black & blind decoration to upper & spine. Good wrapper, near fine book. Contains Liza of Lambeth, Cakes & Ale, Theatre.

871. Maupin, Armstead: Sure Of You

Published by Chatto & Windus, 1990

1st edition hardback, with dust wrapper, very good condition. In this, the sixth and final self-contained volume of Armistead Maupin's epic chronicle of modern life, a fiercely ambitious TV talk show host finds she must choose between national stardom in New York and a husband and child in San Francisco. Wistful and compassionate yet subversively funny.

872. Mayle, Peter: Hotel Pastis

Published by Hamish Hamilton Ltd, 1993

1st edition hardback, with dust wrapper, both in fine condition. Simon Shaw is forty-two, freshly divorced and tired. As he surveys the desolation of his former home in the wake of his ex-wife, he yearns for a life free of complications. Like most advertising men he dreams of getting out, and like most advertising men he always finds reasons to do nothing about it. But somehow a short break in the warm seductive air of Provence quickly turns into something more.

874. McCabe, Patrick: Call Me the Breeze

Published by Faber & Faber, London. 2003

1st edition hardback in fine condition. The dust wrapper is also fine and not price clipped. There are no previous owner names or other marks. Joey Tallon has witnessed many profound changes in the small town of Scotsfield. The men have changed from brutality and corruption to wealth and respectability. And Joey's transformed himself too, and it's his love for Jacy that's brought the transformation. So now Joey Tallon is gonna tell it like it was . . . But who'll believe a kidnapper, a fantasist, a jailbird, when he says he knows the truth about the past the Scotsfield men would rather leave buried? And who's brave enough to hear his testimony?

2147. McCabe, Patrick: The Dead School

Published by Picador, London. 1995

1st edition hardback. Both book and unclipped dust wrapper are in fine condition. Malachy Dudgeon has escaped the misery and madness of his childhood home and landed a job in the most famous school in Dublin. The headmaster, Raphael Bell, has overcome his own tragedies to forge a model career, but when Malachy Dudgeon and Raphael Bell meet, they become inextricably engaged in a macabre relationship which proves fatal to their fortunes and their sanity.

875. McCabe, Patrick: Carn

Published by Aidan Ellis, 1989

Hardback, ex-library with the usual associated faults. One loose page laid in. Vg/g+. 'It seemed as if the town of Carn, a huddled clump of windswept grey buildings split in two by a muddied main street, had somehow been spirited away and supplanted by a thriving, bustling place which bore no resemblance whatever to it. For a split second, she saw her own death, a gunmetal face fixed on the sky, all around the faces and voices of Carn as she had known it. Josie Keenan had come home to the town of Carn, the only home she knew' 'A unique record by somebody who understands that the reality of small-town life is as important in literature as any aspect of Ireland . . . a savage, raw and bitter honesty . . . Authors first novel.

2377. McCarthy, Cormac: The Sunset Limited: A Novel in Dramatic Form

Published by Picador, London, 2010

1st edition UK hardback. Both book and unclipped dust wrapper are in fine condition. There are no previous owner names. A startling encounter on a New York subway platform leads two strangers to a run-down tenement where a life-or-death decision must be made. In that small apartment, 'Black' and 'White', as the two men are known, begin a conversation that leads each back through his own history - mining the origins of two diametrically opposing world views, they begin a dialectic redolent of the best of Beckett. Later filmed under the same title starring Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson.