Books

London: Thornton Butterworth Ltd,, 1937. Inscribed to an England footballer turned country gentleman First edition, first impression, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title, "To F. R. Pelly from Winston S. Churchill October 1937". Fred Pelly (1869-1940) had played international football for England in the 1890s. He was from a prominent family: his grandfather was governor of the Bank of England, his father was a naval captain, and his brother was an admiral who commanded HMS Tiger at Jutland. Besides his football career, he had success in the coal and shipping industry. He purchased estates in East Anglia and Hampshire, where he was an enthusiastic shooter and maintained a wide social circle, including Churchill. Pelly wrote to Churchill to thank him on 4 October 1937, saying he was housebound from illness, and "you will therefore understand how especially welcome 'Great Contemporaries' is just now and it will interest me enormously to read about those famous…