E and MA Radford

	Who Killed Dick Whittington - E and MA Radford [1947] English hardback first edition, first impression published by Andrew Melrose Ltd in London A near VG book unfortunately lacking dust jacket No owner names etc, couple of light marks t cloth, solid binding Synopsis - What this Story is About THE Pavilion Theatre at Burlington-On-Sea was ablaze with twinkling lights which flickered with-pleasing warmth from the revolving hall at the top of the theatre to the flickering colours which ran round the illuminated sign in front^ telling of the programme that was being performed within, Beneath the lights the dark streets were thronged with advancing columns of people jostling one another in a jolly and friendly way as they converged from various directions on the square of pavement before the vestibule of the theatre: old people, younger people and merry children, chattering with one another in joyful anticipation of the pleasures to come. For this was the annual pantomime season at the Pavilion; and the fairy story being played for old children as well as young ones was the popular favourite Dick Whitlington. A theatrical mystery For Sale at £9.50 (approx $14) * - free delivery worldwide !	Buy Secure - Enquire or Add to Cart
	Crime Pays no Dividend - E and MA Radford 1945 British hardcover first edition, first impression published by Melrose in London A good only book sadly without dust wrapper No names, inscriptions or stamps etc A rare Inspector Manson mystery For Sale at £SOLD (approx $SOLD) * - free delivery worldwide !	Buy Secure - Enquire or Add to Cart

Sample SCOTLAND YARD HEARS A STORY THE High Street in the Lincolnshire town of Welsborough was resting quietly under a cloud-filled sky as the clock struck eleven-thirty on an October night. Welsborough was a busy town enough during the daytime hours, particularly on market days and on Saturdays. Farmers and their cowmen, their horsemen and their labourers, floated into it with their womenfolk and girl friends, to do the week's shopping, and to experience the only bustle of life they were likely to encounter until the end of the following week. The High Street was, of course, the shopping street of Welsborough. You needed not to leave its length to procure anything the farmer required from seed to sow for his crops to a cultivator, plough or a harvesting machine to harvest the said crops. And his womenfolk could purchase in the same confines a thread of cotton or a separator for the milk in the dairy. But at night-time the High Street of Welsborough was usually deserted after the old church clock had struck its cracked notes of eight o'clock. The permanent residents were conservative people, in habits as well as in politics; and the pubs had found no space in which to intrude themselves in the shopping centre—they were in the adjacent side streets. So at 11.30 p.m. the High Street was deserted. Well, not quite deserted. A solitary figure walked swiftly down its length. At the bottom it turned into Kitchener Road (not named in honour of the General), and walked half-way down to where the Dog and Gun was sleeping off the effects of the evening's libations. There it stepped into a small two-seater car; and presently the motor-car started up, and was driven away in the direction of Lincoln. or rather, morning—he reached the shop of the London Fashion Modes, Ltd., a comparative newcomer to the town; it had appeared in all its glory in the old shop which had previously housed the drapery business of Mr. Franks, now defunct. London Fashion Modes, Ltd., had taken over the premises and filled them with frocks and 'underneaths' which, the advertisement said, were straight from the great fashion houses which had the distinction of clothing from skin to fur coat the leading ladies of society—who would, be it said, have rather been found dead than seen in the Royal Enclosure at Ascot in such garments. Trade with the L.F.M. had been brisk in Welsborough; the result had been some peculiar pastoral fashions in the farmyards, the dairies, and among the chickens of the countryside. Business, however, had slackened off considerably of late. London Fashion Modes, Ltd., differed in one regard from all the other shops in Welsborough. Alone of the business houses it wisely prepared itself against prowlers. Each night at seven o'clock the manager put up the shutters, hiding the wares in the windows from the possibility, however remote, of their desirable qualities so seducing the women of Welsborough from the path of rectitude, that they would remove with violence the garments in the dark hours of the night. Police-Constable Castle reflected on this inferred insinuation against the reputation of Welsborough as he passed the shuttered windows of London Fashion Modes and stepped into its doorway. His hands had just found the fastenings secure when he paused and sniffed. A pungent aroma wafted itself on the chilly air. "Somebody's chimbly afire, blow it," he said. He stepped back, and from the middle of the road inspected the heavens; no cloud obscured or darkened the grey of the sky, The constable's nose led him again into the doorway of London Fashion Modes; the smell, he decided, must emanate from there. He pushed open the letter-box and peered inside. A reddish glow rewarded him. "Dang me, the place is afire," he said; and ran to the house of Mr. Dingwall, the plumber, who was also the chief of the voluntary fire brigade of Welsborough. When, half an hour later, the members of the brigade had been assembled by a messenger on a bicycle and steam had been got up in the forty-year-old engine, flames had burst through the roof of the shop and stockrooms. Another half hour, and the fashion hopes of Wels-borough's femininity were laid low; the creations of Bond

Brief Biography RADFORD, E. and M.A. British. RADFORD, Edwin Isaac: Born in West Bromwich, Staffordshire, in 1891. Educated at Sherborne School, Dorset; Cambridge University, M.A. Married Mona Augusta Mangan. Journalist for 45 years: Acting Editor, Bradford Evening Argus; Production Editor, Leicester Mail; Chief Sub-Editor and Deputy Editor, Nottingham Evening News; Dramatic and Music Critic, Nottingham Daily Express; Art Editor-in-Chief and Columnist, Daily Mirror, London. Member, Royal Society of Arts. Died in 1973. RADFORD, M(ona) A(ugusta, nee Mangan).

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