UK First Edition 1939 - Michael Joseph	US First Edition 1939 - Knopf

Review
Hiram Holliday is a copy-writer for a major newspaper. One day, he saves his paper a fortune in a libel case, because of his meticulous work. He is given a huge bonus for this, and goes off to see the world. He saves a princess from the Nazis, and fights a duel with Roman Swords on the Appian way - along with many other equally unlikely adventures.

This was Paul Gallico's first book of fiction, although he had written many short stories before this. The book is really a collection of novellas, which follow on from each other. I personally consider the book to be romantic tosh, but several people have taken the trouble to tell me they like the book very much. So I may be in a minority here...

Other information
A TV series was made in 1957, based on the book.

Availability
This book was originally published in hardback in the US. It is quite scarce, and is very difficult to find in the first edition, especially with dust-cover.

There is an Armed Services Edition (#754) of the book; it is also fairly rare.

The UK hardback edition is very scarce indeed. It is not even included on the Other books by Paul Gallico list on any of his other Michael Joseph editions - the only reference I have ever found to it is First published by Michael Joseph, 1939 in the paperback edition. I can only assume that it was a spectacular failure in the UK, and they didn't want to be reminded of it!

It was published in the UK in Penguin, but is now out of print. You may find a copy in a second-hand book shop.

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