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London : Faber & Faber, (1954). First edition : in the variant and almost certainly primary binding of orange-brown cloth, blocked and lettered in maroon. Absent-minded and dotty old autocrat, bright young godson, endless muddles, mismanagement of the village fête, charming young woman – “Everyone will agree they are in good company from beginning to end”.
Crown 8vo (20cm). (214),[ii]pp. Original cloth; just a hint of sunning; light spotting to edges and endpapers; erasure mark from front free endpaper, but a very good and sound copy in the original yellow, blue, black, red and white dust-jacket – just lightly used and with slight fraying of inner flaps, but still very good.

£25

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London : Arthur Barker, (1960). First edition. The fifth and last of the Guy Random novels – “a peer caught in a mouse-trap; three dozen mixed gadabouts stuffed into the boot-cupboard ... a striptease artiste roosting in the chandelier; and a weight-lifter entombed in the grand piano”.
Crown 8vo (19cm). (232)pp. Original maroon boards, blocked and lettered across spine in yellow; a few faint spots, but a very good and sound copy in the original Sinc dust-jacket – a pictorial design in black, cerise, yellow and white – lightly rubbed and worn, and slightly dusty on lower panel.

£20

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London : Arthur Barker, (1959). First edition. The fourth Guy Random novel – ranging from East Anglia to the Costa del Sol, via the gilded drawing-rooms of Belgravia and Soho’s Vulture Club.
Crown 8vo (19cm). (232)pp. Original jade boards, blocked and lettered across spine in pink; slight spotting of edges; faint tanning of endpapers, but a very good and bright copy in the original John Dugan dust-jacket – a pictorial design in orange, green, black and white – just faintly sunned and with just a hint of rubbing.

£20

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London : Stanley Paul & Co., (1911). First edition. “He’d need a long arm who wanted to crown Troddles ... this Prisoner of Zenda story gone wrong” – from the introduction by William Reginald Hodder, who appears also to have co-written the story.
Crown 8vo (20cm). (324) + (48)pp. Illustrations by G. W. Wakefield. Original green cloth, lettered and pictorially blocked on upper cover and spine in black; a few very minor signs of age and use; slight spotting of edges, but a very good copy.

£40

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London : Anthony Blond, (1963). First edition. “A birdie of a book” from the late lamented Paddy Campbell. “May be read with enjoyment (as I have just proved) even by people who don’t know a mashie from a mashed potato” (The Sphere, 13th July 1963).
Crown 8vo (19cm). (144)pp. Illustrations by Quentin Blake. Original green boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; a very good copy in the original pictorial Quentin Blake dust-jacket – also very good.

£50

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London : Hollis & Carter, (1959). First edition. A witty guide for the new generation of innocent and not-so-innocent tourists, delightfully illustrated by Anton.
Post 8vo (22cm). (128)pp. Illustrations. Original red boards, ruled and lettered in gilt; a very good copy in the original Anton dust-jacket – a pictorial design in red, white and black – price-clipped, very slightly rubbed and lightly tanned, but also very good.

£25

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London : Macdonald & Co. (Publishers), (1952). First edition. An entertaining account of coming to London – and the perils and pitfalls of railway porters, private hotels, service flatlets, cab-drivers, digs, bed-sitting rooms, gas-rings, and all the hazards that may greet a young woman from the provinces (in this case Liverpool) – “Unless you intend coming in nothing but a fig leaf and a string of beads you will not expect your arrival in London to cause any sensation”.
Crown 8vo (20cm). 54,[ii]pp. Title-page and illustrations by Ronald Searle. Original red boards, lettered in black; some spotting of edges and prelims, but otherwise a very good copy in the original Searle dust-jacket – a pictorial design of bed-sit, sausages and fire-hazard – just lightly used and with a few spots, but also very good.

£25

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London : Hamish Hamilton, (1961). First edition. His first book – a novel set on the rarer fringes of London literary society. “A little bit of nonsense, young nonsense at that, but excellently contained ... a young man in love and in and out of money ... filled with wonderfully useful references to the preoccupations of the young. It is fun” (The Sphere, 3rd June 1961).
Crown 8vo (20cm). 288pp. Original orange-red boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; a few edge-spots, but a very good, bright and sound copy in the original dust-jacket – a pictorial design by Quentin Blake in purple, ochre and black on white – also very good indeed.

£25

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London : Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers), [1947]. First edition. American and Scotsman live in enmity on Italian island – Capri under another name. Mussolini, Fascism and Sedi, “who keeps a wineshop and is by way of being a witch” unite them – “the war and a British naval landing party give a climax and relish to the book” (The Sketch, 7th January 1948).
Crown 8vo (20cm). 208pp. Original red boards, lettered in black; faint spotting of top edge, but a very good, clean and sound copy of an uncommon title in the Paul Dessau dust-jacket – the jacket just lightly used and slightly nicked, but also very good.

£40

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London : William Heinemann, (1984). First edition. A sparkling collection of eight stories, five previously unpublished. Includes “A Martian Comes to Stay”, “The Dragon Tunnel”, “Princess by Mistake” and “A Flock of Gryphons”, etc. “As witty, ingenious, and delightful to read as any of the books that have made her such a popular writer”.
Demy 8vo (23cm). (120)pp. Charming illustrations by John Lawrence (1933- ). Original blue boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; a few faint marks, but otherwise a very good copy in the Lawrence dust-jacket – the jacket just lightly used, but also very good.

£40

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London : Faber & Faber, (1937). First edition. “The amusement to be obtained from a simple yet ingenious puzzle, and the pride of quickly solving it, sets up a well-being far more important in keeping the doctor away than any number of apples”. A brain-teaser (with some nice seasonal touches) for every day of the year (not forgetting leap-years) – with solutions at the end – and hints on how to tackle similar problems.
Crown 8vo (20cm). (232)pp. Diagrams, etc. Original pale blue cloth, lettered in red; a little sunned; some spotting, mainly of edges; a good copy in the striking dust-jacket by Edward Bawden (1903-1989) – the jacket a little chipped and slightly tanned, but essentially complete and a most uncommon survival. A few internal pencil marks perhaps suggesting less than assiduous application to the problems by a previous owner.

£75

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London : Field & Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, [1886]. First edition. “I am only a little girl, but I have my thoughts, and I have plenty of time for thinking them, as I am a great deal alone ... when I am not by myself I am with grown-up people, and it is their ways which puzzle me”. A celebrated Victorian spoof, complete with chapters on Afternoon Tea, Juvenile Parties, Serious Thoughts and How to Get a Book Printed, and with its own “home-made” binding. “Little girls’ eyes and ears are proverbially sharp; but, luckily for domestic peace, they are rarely so keen as this particular little girl’s. What she has to say of the shams and pretences of society, as she sees it, is often amusing from its spice of truth. The style too, in its affected innocence, is decidedly smart” (St. James’s Gazette, 25th November 1886).
Crown 4to (23cm). 102,[ii]pp. Line illustrations in text. Original boards; covered in a floral patterned cloth, with sewn ties, ostensibly by the author herself and lots of little factory girls; paper title label; cloth worn and discoloured in places; endpapers a little spotted and tanned; some occasional internal marks and mild spotting; one leaf slightly torn, not affecting text, but a serviceable copy of an unusual and highly entertaining title.

£50

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London : John Lane, The Bodley Head, (1938). First edition : the first issue, printed on slightly thicker stock and in the primary binding of yellow cloth. An engaging anthology – E. C. Bentley, Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, Ogden Nash, and many more – compiled and edited by Denys Kilham Roberts. Illustrated with some arresting images by Victor Reinganum. “In spite of the title, most of the authors represented are (or were) no madder than is implied in Dr. Johnson’s assertion that all power of fancy over reason is a degree of insanity ... a volume to revel in” (Belfast News-Letter, 15th December 1938).
Crown 8vo (20cm). (xx),(260)pp. Original yellow cloth, blocked and lettered in dark red; some very faint spotting to covers and edges, but otherwise a very good and bright copy in the yellow, brown and black Reinganum jacket – a little sunned, lightly rubbed and with a few slight nicks, but also very good.

£50

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London : John Lane, The Bodley Head, (1938). First edition : the second issue, printed on thinner stock and in the secondary binding of grey cloth. An engaging anthology – E. C. Bentley, Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, Ogden Nash, and many more – compiled and edited by Denys Kilham Roberts. Illustrated with some arresting images by Victor Reinganum. “In spite of the title, most of the authors represented are (or were) no madder than is implied in Dr. Johnson’s assertion that all power of fancy over reason is a degree of insanity ... a volume to revel in” (Belfast News-Letter, 15th December 1938).
Crown 8vo (20cm). (xx),(260)pp. Original grey cloth, blocked and lettered in dark red; some very faint spotting to covers and edges, but otherwise a very good and bright copy in the yellow, brown and black Reinganum jacket – price-clipped, a little chipped at head, and with some minor repairs and reinforcement.

£25

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London : Martin Secker & Warburg, (1984). First edition : in the earlier dust-jacket (designed by Red Ranch). Wilt resurfaces teaching at the Fenland Tech – complications ensue, with drug-dealing, Inspector Flint, accusations of voyeurism, and the local US airbase. “The loudest laughs in literary comedy ... the great post-Waugh humourist, the Wodehouse who dares plunge into the bottomless vulgarity and hysteria of our times” (David Hughes, Mail on Sunday).
Demy 8vo (23cm). [iv],(236)pp. Original black boards, ruled and lettered in gilt; very good in the original dust-jacket – the principal design in red, black and green on white – just a touch sunned and slightly bruised, but also very good.

£25

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London : Hamish Hamilton, (1962). First edition : precedes the American edition. A posthumously published collection of twenty-one pieces, including “Menaces in May”, “The Lady from the Land”, “The Manic in the Moon”, etc., with a preface by Helen Thurber. “An all too short collection of articles, essays, and pieces ... none of them having appeared in book form before” (The Sphere, 1st December 1962).
Demy 8vo (23cm). (xii),180pp. Illustrations by Thurber. Original red boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; a very good copy in the original Thurber dust-jacket – a design in yellow, black and red – also very good.

£40

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