Whispering Wind by Syd Kyle-Little

mattym

After watching Ray Mears interview the author of this book about being a police man in Australia in the 50s i googled it. I was amazed to find the book on amazon for $200 and on book finder for €160. Anyone know any reason why its so expensive, and anyone know where i might pick it up for a more reasonable price, much more reasonable!! :)

sceptre

It's nuts, isn't it.

One of my favourite movies is apparently out of print on DVD and is going for almost £100 per copy. I gave my only copy to someone about two years ago when the thing was going for under a tenner.

I can only assume it's out of print, these things are typically more valuable when they are if there are more buyers than sellers. The book was published in 1957 so it's nowhere near out of copyright. And anyone who finds one is probably aware that they can flog it for €200 so I imagine you're out of luck.

Kennya

I have been investigating the availability of this book for some time.
I was offered a good copy in an Adelaide bookstore at $75 last July. (I should have bought this)This seemed a bit pricey at the time so I said no thanks. As I was still interested I continued to scour the internet for copies for sale. As well as the 1957 edition there is a reprint of 1993. Also sold out. Copies have always been in the $75 to 100 range until recently when they leapt up to an amazing $500 for some copies.
I have previously contacted Ray Mears web adminstrators and aslo Syd's son Damion. The outcome is that Damion is to get the book reprinted. This has initially fallen foul of lack of finance to pay for the reprint. But fortunately he has found 4 boxes of books at his mother's house. He intends to use these to finance the reprint. They are being offered as signed copies with an acknowledgement written by his mum. As he says his dad is now 90 and his writing is very shakey, but he will sign all 80 copies. These will then be the last books he signs. The bad news is Damion is asking $240 a copy.
Damion has been contacted by about 500 people in the past 12 months regarding this book and this has obviously filtered through to the booksellers who have taken advantage to push up their prices.

topper75

All credit to free market principles as Roy Keane might say. But is it right that such a great tale should be so exclusive?

I say him on Mears and total agree with Mears' assertion at the end that it is a pity there isn't more men like Kyle-Little in the world. He rejected the views of his own culture to pursue what was right - it takes bravery.

Hundreds of dollars? Damn.

enfield48j

hi, there is a 1st ed copy of this book for sale currently on ebay......