Customer Reviews

A Toast to Tomorrow: -1914

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My rating is for the book itself, not for this edition.

A Toast To Tomorrow is a splendid book, filled with courage, gallantry, patriotism, suspense, action, splendid characters, and touches of humor. I first read it nearly 50 years ago, when the book was older than I was then, and I have loved it, and the series it began, ever since.

This is the first of the thrillers about Tommy Hambledon of British Military Intellegence, written by "Manning Coles". Adelaide Manning and Cyril Coles wrote these based on Coles's experiences in the intelligence service during WWI and after. This particular edition claims to have been written in 1914. No. It is set during WWI, which began in 1914. It was published and copyrighted in 1940, at the beginning of WWII, and the events told in the book must have been deeply resonant with British readers as they faced a horrific war ... again.

The entire series is splendid, with the exception of the very last one or two, published in the early 1960's, which were written by a ghost writer after Adelaide Manning died. That one completely misses the spirit of the characters and the writing, and tries to turn Tommy Hambledon into some sort of James Bond/Simon Templar character. Does. Not. Work.

I devoutly wish that these were available on Kindle -- they are not. They are virtually the only books that I will read in book format (cookbooks are the other exception), because I love them that much. I wish I could enlarge the print for my aging eyes, and not have to clutch the books in my now-arthritic hands, but such is life. It's bad enough that I am considering trying to scan and format these for my own private use.

Tom Schantz and Rue Morgue Press are re-issuing these, and doing a great job of it. Go and buy them now. Very good paper, clean copy, no fiddley little copy errors that I have noticed. Small type. Can't have everything. Just having them back in print is wonderful, because my ancient paperbacks have yellowed paper and failing bindings, and these will last for many years more. Try them. Buy them. You will not be sorry.

My father had most of the Manning Coles books and I read them as a child, about fifty years ago. They are still some of my favorites, though some more than others, of course. This is one of the good ones, for all the reasons mentioned by previous reviewers, and with the touches of humor that flowered so successfully into the books that featured Forgan and Campbell as Hambledon's assistants. Buy them all; you won't be disappointed.