BABINGTON, K. B. The Kremlin Cat and the Bomb. ~i~[London], Oriel Press,~/i~ [1983].
8vo. Original cloth-backed boards with illustrated dust-wrappers (not price-clipped); pp. viii, 158, [2]; wrappers a little spotted, otherwise very good.
~b~First edition, an incredible association copy~/b~ of this cold war satirical espionage novel with a Soviet cat, Feliski, as spy and hero. The hilarious plot ranges across the world from Moscow to the Pentagon and Bali. K. G. Babington is not known apart from this book. The rear inside flap, where one would usually find some text 'about the author' is left blank. He presented this copy in July 1994, signing 'KGB' to Mary Howard on the half-title (her ownership inscription underneath). Babington's printed dedication is 'for my daughters … and their cats'. The recipient of this presentation copy wrote underneath 'I've met them all - MH'. Of course the real author can not be identified; however, Mary Howard is one half of the infamous couple of CIA operatives, Mary and Edward Lee Howard, who defected to the Soviet Union in 1985 and might have been double-agents. 'Howard and his wife were trained CIA operatives about to be deployed to Moscow as a husband-and-wife spy team when things went south. Howard was accused of being a KGB mole and fired. FBI surveillance agents were watching his New Mexico home and tailing his car when Howard decided to vanish. He reappeared a year later in Moscow where he’d been granted political asylum' (Spyscape, ~i~online~/i~).
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