The Chequer Board is probably one of the easiest
Nevil Shute novels to find. If you search the
antiquarian book shops or flea markets, you are
likely to see a copy of The Chequer Board on the
shelf, even if there are no other Shute titles.

The reason.... BOMC (The Book-Of-The-Month Club) apparently
printed great numbers of these. Many of these book club editions are
often mistaken for first editions. The Morrow first edition, however,

is quite uncommon and fairly easy to identify.

The book cover itself provides the most obvious distinction. The
Morrow first edition's cover has a tan back ground, with two thin
red lines running horizontally across the front cover, and one thin
red line running vertically. The old William Morrow trademark
shows on the lower right hand side. On the spine of the first
edition, "by Nevil Shute" in encircled.

The BOMC edition book has a solid red cover. The spine has
two checker board designs, one above and one below the title of
the book and author's name. If you have the book with a red
cover, instead of tan, it's a dead give-away that you have the
bookclub edition.

Notice the image of the dust jacket at the top of this page. The Morrow
first edition and the BOMC edition look exactly the same on the front
cover of the dustjacket. No difference. The most revealing difference
on the dustjacket is that the first edition has a price of $2.75 printed in
the upper right-hand corner of the inside flap, unless someone has
clipped it off. There is no price mentioned on the bookclub edition.

When you look at the back of the dustjacket, you began to notice some
differences. As the images below show, the Morrow first edition has
the name "Nevil Shute" printed in red font towards the top. The BOMC
edition also has the name printed in red, but on the BOMC book, the
font is much bolder. Also, at the very bottom of the dustjacket,
"William Morrow & Co., Inc. 425 Fourth Ave., New York 16 N. Y." is
printed. The book club edition only has "Printed in U.S.A." in very
small italized font.

There are several other minor differences on the dustjacket, such as, on
the first edition's inside front flap there is a description of about three
sentences before the title (printed in red font), with the author's name
printed below, followed by more description of the novel. The BOMC
edition has "THE CHEQUER BOARD" (in red bold font) by Nevil
Shute (in bold black font) printed at the top of the inside flap.

As it is so common with the other Nevil Shute titles, don't be surprised
to find a copy of The Chequer Board, in the book club version, listed
as a first edition on your rare book dealer's shelf. It happens frequently!