THE QUEENS OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC. [Author's facsimile SIGNED copy.]

UK,slim Qrto hB+dw/dj,facsimile SIGNED,1st edn. FINE/FINE.No owner inscrptn but author's bold,black felt-tip pen ink facsimile dedication+ initialled signature: 'to Sasha,my son. R.L (angled,forward oblique underscore)' to top corner of front free endpaper and no price-clip to dw/dj - lack of publisher's printed price - therefore believed to be an export edn,which precedes the UK trade issue.Bright,crisp,clean, glossy laminated,colour photographic illustrated front panel of dw/dj with yellow,red+black lettering,rear panel with montaged monochrome photographs; with negligible shelf-wear or creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present.Some minor,superficial scoring and indents to dw/dj - very lightly affecting the front board beneath.Top+ fore-edges bright and clean; contents bright,tight,clean,solid and sound - pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners, appears unread - apart from my own collation.Bright,crisp,clean, generally sharp-cornered,publisher's original plain black cloth boards with bright,crisp,blocked gilt letters to spine/backstrip and immaculate b/w photographic illustrated endpapers.UK,slim Qrto HB+dw/dj,facsimile SIGNED 1st edn,14-124pp [paginated] includes a prologue,13 chapters and an epilogue,profuse monochrome contemporary photographs and b/w illustrations throughout the text and the book; plus [unpaginated] double-page b/w scenic photograph (launch of QE2) title page with contents list/table to it's reverse,magazine b/w photograph (Queen + princesses Elizabeth & Margaret at QE2 launch) with picture credits to it's reverse,double-page monochrome photographic chapter headpieces.
Unusual to find such an interesting example and connecting familial inscribed copy - of father to his son.
For over a quarter of a century the North Atlantic passage was the ultimate in sophisticated travel,the principal link between Europe and America,a way of life for socialites,writers,film stars.And the two great Cunard liners,the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth,the largest passenger ships the world has ever,or will ever see,represented the apogee of that glittering era.
'The Queens of the North Atlantic' traces with words,'photographs,and contemporary drawings the stories of these great ships and their competitors on the North Atlantic run,evoking the atmosphere of the grand saloon and chronicling the social history of the lifestyle that is now just a nostalgic memory.Built as a gesture of national self-confidence and defiance during the depression,the Queen Mary was the first of a pair of liners designed to operate a non-stop transatlantic shuttle and mail service. The Queen Elizabeth was not completed until the outbreak of WW2 and had to make a dramatic and secret maiden voyage zig-zagging through U-Boat packs to reach New York.From this base the two Queens,given by Winston Churchill to the USA for the duration of the war,operated as troop ferries,carrying over a million and a half fighting men and,after the war,G.I. brides.After 1946 the two Queens started up the shuttle for which they had been built,sailing profitably for over fifteen years before their retirement,the Queen Elizabeth travelling to Hong Kong to be disastrously gutted by fire,the Queen Mary being moved to Long Beach,California where,as the home of the California Museum of the Sea,she now welcomes nearly two million visitors every year (then 1973).
Robert Lacey's first book 'Robert Earl of Essex',was hailed as 'the biography of the year' by Professor J. P. Kenyon in the London Observer and his biography of Sir Walter Raleigh,written in the same year as 'The Queens of the North Atlantic.',also won critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic in 1974.It was selected as a Literary Guild Alternate choice.
The author lives with his wife and two children,Sasha and Scarlet in London,where he is currently researching several works of contemporary history (then 1973).
Subsequently the author has divorced his first wife Alexandra Jane "Sandi" Avrach in 2004 after 34 years and three children - Sasha, Scarlett and Bruno.In August 2012 Lacey was remarried to Lady Jane Rayne,the daughter of the 8th Marquess of Londonderry and widow of property developer Max Rayne.
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