The Unknown Courier
( Operation MINCEMEAT ) COLVIN, Ian
THE FIRST REAL TASTE OF MINCEMEAT: SIGNED PRESENTATION COPY
Published: William Kimber, [1953]
Stock code: 44506
Price: £590.00
8vo., First Edition, with portrait frontispiece, plates and endpaper maps; handsomely bound in full dark green crushed morocco, sides with gilt frame border, back with raised bands, second and fourth compartments lettered and ruled in gilt, all other compartments tooled in gilt, gilt top, hand-made endpapers, ribbon marker, custom-made slip-case, an elegant copy ideal as a gift or for presentation.
A PRESENTATION COPY FROM THE AUTHOR WITH HIS SIGNED HOLOGRAPH INSCRIPTION ON FRONT FREE ENDPAPER. Arguably the most famous strategic deception of WWII, Operation MINCEMEAT remained a closely guarded secret until the publication of Duff Cooper's novel Operation Heartbreak in 1950. The author, a sharp-eyed journalist, was intrigued by the plot and linked it to a footnote in a book by General Westphal, formerly Kesselring's Chief of Staff. The result of his researches is the present work, a piece of investigative journalism so close to the truth that the authorities had little choice but to allow Montagu (MINCEMEAT's organiser), to relate the story (almost) in full in 'The Man Who Never Was'. SIGNED COPIES ARE EXTREMELY SCARCE. Enser, p.399; Law 0825.