Published by Jonathan Cape, 1959, Hardback in Dust Wrapper. 1st Ed.
Condition: Good in Good+ Dust Wrapper. Unlaminated dust wrapper a little edgeworn and faded. Edges of the text block lightly spotted. First blank has been excised. Text complete, clean and tight but a little age-tanned otherwise.
From the cover: This is a novel of love and adventure played out against a fascinating background the foreign Hongs (factories) in the months immediately preceding the 1839 Opium War between Britain and China.
Adam Vale, a man of sterling principles, had no part in the opium trade which had enriched so many of his fellow merchants, but he knew the trouble that was brewing meant danger for the Canton branch of Samuel Vale & Co. The arrival at this juncture of so young and inexperienced a recruit as little Blakeway appalled him. If the audacity of the new Junior Writer had not won him a reprieve, he would have been sent straight back to England on the ship which brought him.
In truth, Mr Vales misgivings were far more justified than he was to realise for a year or more. Here was no sixteen-year-old boy, but Master Sarah, impersonating her less hardy and adventurous brother. China had no lure for Rackham Blakeway; his sister declared she would give her ears to go. And being an amazing young woman for those times and a true daughter of her seafaring father, to Canton Sarah went.
BookLovers of Bath 