Siam

100374 — Eyre & Spottiswoode. London. 1948. Eyre & Spottiswoode. London. 1948. First edition. Hardback. No DW. Original green cloth sunned to spine head and tail of spine and corners slightly crumpled. Pages browned otherwise clean and sound. PRESENTATION COPY FROM CHULA "For Robin with love from Chula November 1948." Robin's ownership signature to reverse of front free endpaper. Robin Dalton lived to 101 and had an extraordinary life and career. As a literary agent she represented Edna O'Brien John Osborne Iris Murdoch Ben Travers George Orwell Margaret Drabble B. S. Johnson Bernice Rubens and many more. She also produced films spied for Thai Government and for over five years dated the cousin and best man of Prince Philip David Milford Haven. It was he that introduced her to the Chulas and after being snowed in for five days at their Cornish house in 1947 they became her lifelong friends. On her honeymoon to her second husband in Cornwall Robin was approached by Chula who asked her to become an intelligence officer for the kingdom of Thailand. Officially she was a press attaché. "What went on taught me that every single crazy thing you see in a spy film or book is true." Within a day of husband's early death Lisba Princess Chula had offered to pay for her daughter's Lisa's education hardcover