The Shoals of Capricorn (Signed Copy)

Signed Presentation copy from the author with inscription to first free endpaer, "Wee, with love from FD Ommanney, 10.v.53, Holford". Hardback in the excellent dust-jacket. 8vo. pp. [vii] + 322; eight pages of b/w photographs. Loosely inserted is a bunch of letters, mostly to 'Wee', cuttings, a photograph, and a publisher's compliments slip. In one TLS from Ommanney he talks about packing up his house in Zanzibar, dismissing servants, selling various items including his 'electric' motor car, "I have sold my electric motor to a young ex-Naval Officer who doesn't know that there is a slump in second hand cars here because he spent mpst of his time in Mombasa". A early mention of electric cars then! Ommanney spent two years investigating the ocean shallows between Mauritius and the Seychelles to establish, on behalf of the Colonial Office, whether of not the fishing justified commercial development. "By far the greater part of this book is devoted to the islands and their inhabitants, and is compiled of spoonfuls of gossipy, history, politics, general knowledge, and personal experiences told in an amused this-sort-of-thing-always-happens-to-me kind of style," - G.P. Griggs, book review.