ALEC WAUGH - The Mule on the Minaret. A Novel About the Middle East

London England, Cassel & Co, 1965. First Edition, Binding: Cloth, Fine/Fair. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall Hardback This is the story of Noel Reid, a professor of History and Philosophy, married but not very satisfactorily, who is posted in 1941 to the Intelligence unit operating in the Lebanon. Here he joins forces with Nigel Farrar, boss of M.I.5 in Beirut, and is soon involved in complex plans to suborn hand-picked Lebanese for service in the Allied cause, mainly to relay misleading information to the Germans in Istanbul. He is helped in the early stages, by an experienced young woman in Farrar's office with whom, in a short time, he has an affair. For him Diana becomes the one solace in an unsavoury situation. The whole of Noel Reid's wartime adventures are seen in retrospect as he revisits the scene seventeen years later and meets again both Farrar and Diana. For them the war has brought a new, completely satisfying life. Some wear and tear to D/J.