So: I have adjusted the statements on the Collecting page and now must do some research to check which of the Armada editions and Goodchild editions are abridged and which have the full text of the first editions.

Brian Parks emailed me to ask about this as he'd found, with delight, extra passages in his newly acquired hardback edition of Frenchman's Secret compared with his Armada edition, but after a brief look into the first few chapters of the Armadas of both Fire in the Punchbowl and The Outsider could not find any abbreviation of the text.

When I read the books, I read to enjoy revisiting old friends and places, I don't want to analyse the text. So I've never gone through the books comparing text; I should have, certainly before stating that 'the Armada editions are abridged'. I'm sorry, I shall check.

This may take some time . . . I started a week or so back, at the beginning of April [2003], 'reading' WFAP and comparing it with the Armada. I'm now over half way through and can report that so far the Armada edition hasn't been abridged.

I know that the Armada Nightbird is abridged, because I checked that some time ago, and that Frenchman's Secret is, is confirmed by Brian. So that leaves fourteen to check.
If there are any volunteers out there, with copies of the full text and Armadas as well: all information graciously and gratefully received ! We might get a full list this year !
LATEST ! We now have checked all the Armada editions against full text, and the results are entered on the page below.

If you have a comment, or knowledge, or wish to volunteer to check a book, email me.

In order to see what the response is/has been, click here to go to the feedback page, and select the Abridged Results page to see what's been confirmed or not so far.