I've a couple of posts on Adam Hall – alias Elleston Trevor, thriller writer and, under the Hall alias, creator of the Quiller spy series – planned for this week, both of them to do with memorabilia. I'll be unveiling my personal piece of Hall ephemera later in the week, but first: earlier this year, quite out of the blue, I was surprised and delighted to receive an email from Elleston Trevor's son, JP Trevor. JP had spotted one of my posts on Hall/Quiller – my review of the second Quiller outing, The Ninth Directive, I believe, which I own in signed first – and wondered if I might know of a good place online to sell a number of Hall/Quiller items: books, posters, cuttings, photos; notes for the final Quiller book, Quiller Balalaika, which JP helped his dying father finish; even memorabilia related to the 1966 big screen Quiller adaptation, The Quiller Memorandum, and the 1965 film version of Trevor's novel The Flight of the Phoenix.
I told JP I'd ask around on his behalf, but also offered to post something myself on the items. JP agreed, and so I'm pleased to be able to present below the full list of pieces for sale. It's an extraordinary collection of Adam Hall memorabilia – Quillerbilia, if you will (or even memoraquillera... no, perhaps not) – and this is the first time any of it has been seen online; the photographs scattered about this post were kindly taken by JP especially for me, which makes them something of an Existential Ennui exclusive. Anyone interested in any of the pieces or seeking more information can contact me on the Existential Ennui email address, and I'll be sure to forward all inquiries and questions to JP.
QUILLER'S ORIGINAL BLACK BELT (ADAM HALL'S)
BALALAIKA A4 PLOT BOOK – 62 PAGES OF NOTES BY ADAM HALL
23 PAGE ORIGINAL QUILLER FORMAT
QUILLER'S RUN JOVE PUBLISHING POSTER WITH CUTOUT DRAGON
QUILLER JOVE PUBLISHING POSTER
QUILLER KGB WH ALLEN/STAR PUBLISHING LARGE POSTER
QUILLER BALALAIKA ORIGINAL OUTLINE
SIGNED A4 B/W ADAM HALL
QUILLER LONDON ODEON MARQUIS A4
ADAM HALL & SENTA BERGER AT LONDON PREMIERE
ORIGINAL QUILLER MEMBERSHIP ACETATE TEMPLATE A4
FIGHTING STARS MAGAZINE, MINT CONDITION, 4 PAGE ARTICLE ON ADAM HALL
21 PAGE ELLESTON TREVOR'S ORIGINAL LAST RITES OUTLINE
VARIOUS ORIGINAL NEWSPAPER CUTTINGS & PHOTOS
And:
ELLESTON TREVOR'S PERSONAL COPY OF THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX SHOOTING SCRIPT: a one-off edition made by Twentieth Century Fox for Elleston Trevor, plus sixty-four black-and-white photographs taken by Trevor on location in Arizona, and A4 cast photos, nine of them – including James Stewart and Richard Attenborough – signed.
The Flight of the Phoenix is one of my favorite films of all time, and gets more relevant with age, strangely (I think we're still failing to get the point). Thankfully it is shown in its proper widescreen format fairly often on cable here--and the inept pointless flop remake of a few years back hardly ever.
ReplyDeleteI think Mr. Trevor ought to go with a reputable auction house seeing as how his father is a highly well known and collectible author. In the US we have Swann Galleries who deal exclusively with rare books and book related ephemera. Lately they've expanded to include photographs, posters, prints & drawings. Sotheby's is good for books in the UK. I don't know if there's an auction house that only does books over there.
ReplyDeleteChris: I don't think I've seen it. Must seek it out.
ReplyDeleteJohn: JP may well have looked into that – I couldn't say. But he'll see these comments I expect, so thanks for the information about Swann Galleries especially.
I've yet to read the novel, and I know of several significant changes, but I believe it's a fairly faithful adaptation overall.
ReplyDeleteAs I see it, fidelity (or lack thereof) matters much more in the case of bad film adaptations than good ones. What's most important is to be faithful to the spirit of the book, rather than the strict letter.
But I'd want to read the novel before I definitively conclude Flight of the Phoenix does that. I'm guessing yes.
I picked up a nice (first) edition of Hall's 'The Kobra Manifesto' in the excellent Tome bookshop in Eastbourne earlier.
ReplyDeleteFor genre fiction Tome is giving Camilla's a run for its money I'd say; it's nice to have two good shops like this in one town, backed up by an Oxfam bookshop that does enough to keep one interested.
Camilla's has had quite a tidy up recently as well (especially downstairs), making it slightly easier to navigate.
I've been to Tome a couple of times, Chris (most recent Chris, I mean, who I know is a different chap to the Chris above him), and found a few decent things each time. I'd go in there more often, but I don't get the opportunity to get to Eastbourne that often. And yes, I noticed Camilla's had had a clear-out on my last trip. The massive, art installation-style pile of books on the ground floor is gone, and you can actually walk along the aisles downstairs now. It's a miracle!
ReplyDeleteGlad to see your interest in Elleston, my friend and mentor, who was a wonderful novelist. I wrote that "Spy Who Came in from the Dojo" piece, btw, one of several articles I did on Elleston.
ReplyDelete