Clearwater Books

PETER ACKROYD. The Great Fire of London. A novel. Hamish Hamilton, London 1982. First Edition of Ackroyd’s scarce first novel, a re-working of Dickens’ Little Dorrit. 169pp. Red boards lettered in gold at spine. A hint of tanning to leaf margins as is invariably the case, else in fine state with fine dust wrapper. £250

RICHARD ADAMS. Watership Down. A novel. Macmillan, New York [1974]. First US Edition, first impression. 249pp. Cloth-covered beige cloth lettered in gold at spine and with facsimile signature to upper board. A tiny hint of spotting to top edge. Tiny superficial crease to tip of front endpaper. In virtually fine state with price-clipped dust wrapper, fractionally tanned at spine panel and with two tiny marks. £45

After being rejected by thirteen publishers Adams’ celebrated debut novel was finally published in 1972 by London publisher Rex Collins. This first American edition appeared two years later.

RICHARD ALDINGTON. Paul Nash. Death of a Hero. Chatto & Windus 1929.  First English Edition (preceded by several weeks by the American edition). 440pp. Head of spine just a little rubbed and with a small ridge running half the length of the spine. Endpapers fractionally browned, else an extremely clean and bright copy in price-clipped dust wrapper featuring a magnificent original lithograph by Paul Nash. The wrapper is a little chipped at head of spine panel and tanned, with an inch of loss to rear panel (not affecting any text). Signs of the removal of two small stickers from rear panel.  £125

RICHARD ALDINGTON. Paul Nash. Roads to Glory. Chatto & Windus 1930.  First Edition. 278pp. Binding just fractionally tender and endpapers very lightly browned, but a super, bright copy. Tiny dealer sticker to rear pastedown. In very good dust wrapper featuring a striking original lithograph by Paul Nash on the front panel, repeated on the rear. Head of spine rubbed and with a tiny short tear. Two small stickers to flaps with a small amount of resulting off-setting to front and rear endpapers.  £175

IAIN BANKS. Walking on Glass. Macmillan, London 1985. First Edition of the author's second book. 239pp. Black cloth, lettered in gold at spine. Paper stock tanned else in fine state, with near fine dust wrapper. £40

H.E.BATES. Charlotte's Row. Cape 1931. First trade edition, limited to 2000 copies and preceded by a limited edition of 107 signed copies. 271pp. Blue cloth, lettered at spine in gilt. Spine faded and a little chipped at head. Cloth very lightly marked in one or two small areas. Rear gutter just a little tender. About good copy, very crisp and bright internally, with a neat ink-stamped initial to front and rear pastedowns. No dust wrapper. One of Bates earlier novels. £45

LORD BERNERS.  The Camel.  A Tale.  With three illustrations by the author.  Constable, London 1936.  First Edition of Berners first book.  174pp. Pink cloth, gilt lettered at spine and upper board.  Quite a cocked copy, cloth a little blotchy.  Tiny knock to tip of a single corner.  A hint of sporadic foxing.  Binding cracked in two places, yet sound.  In tanned and scuffed dust wrapper, with a little loss to corners and head of spine panel. Former owner name. £40

LORD BERNERS.  Count Omega.  Constable & Co. Ltd, London 1941.  First Edition. 208pp. Purple cloth with silver lettering to spine. With a frontispiece illustration by the author. One corner very lightly knocked and head of spine bumped, else an extremely clean and bright copy. Front endpaper a little scuffed where a previous price has been a little too vigorously erased. In marked and soiled dust wrapper, chaffed at a few extremities and internally reinforced.  £50

WILLIAM PETER BLATTY. The Exorcist. Harper & Row, New York 1971. First Edition, first impression. 340pp. Quarter-bound burgundy cloth, lettered in gold at spine. Head and base of spine just fractionally rubbed, else in fine state with correct first state dust wrapper, with a single short closed tear to front panel and another to rear panel resulting in several lengthy creases. An excellent copy of Batty’s celebrated head-spinner. £125

PIERRE BOULLE. Monkey Planet. Translated from the French by Xan Fielding. Secker & Warburg, London 1964. First English Edition of La Planète des Singes.  223pp. Green boards lettered in silver at spine. A hint a spotting to top edge and an infinitesimal blemish to edge to front endpaper, plus a minor indentation from a now absent paperclip. An exceptionally crisp and bright copy in very good double-spread Margaret Eastoe-illustrated dust wrapper, just a fraction rubbed at tips of corners and several other extremities and with several short scores to a small area of the front panel.  A super copy of Boulle’s seminal science fiction novel, to date spawning, a cult Oscar-winning film and four sequels, a television series, an animated series, a cinematic remake and a prequel. £275

JOHN BRAINE, JOHN MINTON.  Room At The Top. Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1957. First Edition. 256pp. Green boards with gilt lettering to spine. A slightly grubby, dusty and cocked copy, with hints of fox spotting throughout. Endpapers slightly browned and ffep possibly replaced. Attractive Desmond Young bookplate. In striking John Minton-illustrated, non-price-clipped dust wrapper, nicked at extremities and rear panel a little marked. Braine's celebrated debut novel. £95

ANTHONY BURGESS.  Beds in the East.  William Heinemann Ltd, London 1959. First Edition. 237pp. Blue cloth, gilt lettered at the spine. A very good copy, with just a hint of fox spotting to top and fore edge and to one or two preliminary leaves.  In handsome John Rowland-designed, non-price-clipped pictorial dust wrapper, lightly faded at spine panel and with a couple of short closed tears and resulting creases, and a small area of loss to head of spine.  Burgess' third book - and the final instalment of his Malayan Trilogy.  £100

THOMAS BURKE.  Limehouse Nights.  Tales of Chinatown.  Grant Richard’s Limited, London 1916.  First Edition.  311pp.  Fawn cloth, lettered in brown at spine and upper board.  A dusty copy, cloth somewhat marked and a little raised in one or two small areas of the spine.  Head and foot of spine rubbed and several corners lightly chaffed. With some spotting to fore edge, prelims and the first 50 sheets. Neat inked name of former owner.  Fourteen stories centered around life in the poverty-stricken Limehouse district of London.  Burke’s first book, the work which cemented his reputation as a “purveyor of melodramatic stories of lust and murder among London’s lower classes”.  £125

WILLIAM BURROUGHS. The Soft Machine. A novel. Calder & Boyars, London 1968. The definitive revised and first UK edition, originally published in Paris by The Olympia Press in 1961 and followed by a first revised US issue 1966. 187pp. Brown boards lettered in gold at spine. Top edge a fraction dust marked, else in virtually fine state with dust wrapper, chafed at extremities, a little rubbed at head of spine panel and with some minor dust marking to rear panel. Burrough’s fourth published novel. £50

ROBERT BYRON AND CHRISTOPHER SYKES (writing at Richard Waughburton). Innocence and Design. Macmillan, London 1935. First Edition of Byron’s only novel. 312pp. Blind-decorated green cloth lettered in gold at spine. Illustrated with a map, title-page decoration and numerous endearing line drawing by Sykes. Top edge dust marked with a minor slant to binding. A hint of wear to head and base of spine and a single tiny tear to front hinge. Several lightly superficial creases to front endpaper. A very nice copy of a fugitive volume, lacking the scarce dust wrapper. £200

J.L.CARR. A Month in the Country. The Harvester Press, Sussex 1980. First Edition, first printing. 111pp. Maroon boards lettered in silver at spine. Faint ghost of former pencilled marking to front endpaper, else in fine state with dust wrapper, somewhat faded at spine panel as is invariably the case. Carr’s fifth and most celebrated and desirable novel, short-listed for the Booker Prize and winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize. Really very scarce. £300

BRUCE CHATWIN. Peter Levi. The Light Garden of the Angel King. Journeys in Afghanistan. With photographs by Bruce Chatwin. Collins, London 1972. First Edition. 287pp. Map-illustrated endpapers. Illustrated with twenty Chatwin photographs, plus one in colour on the front panel of the dust wrapper and a portrait of the author on the rear. A tiny hint of spotting to top- and fore edge, else in fine state with dust wrapper, very lightly faded at spine panel and a little chafed at several extremities. Five numerals neatly inked to base of spine panel. £35

Chatwin, frequently the author’s companion on these journeys in Afghanistan, features considerably in the text.

BRUCE CHATWIN. In Patagonia. Cape, London 1977. First Edition of Chatwin’s desirable first book. 204pp. With a frontispiece map and fourteen photographs by the author. In fine state with virtually fine price-clipped dust wrapper, very lightly sunned at spine panel and fractionally creased at several extremities. Winner of the Hawthornden Prize and the E. M. Forster Award. £250

AGATHA CHRISTIE. Peril at End House. W.Collins / The Crime Club, London 1932. First UK Edition (published one month earlier in the US). 252pp + iv publisher’s catalogue at rear. Orange cloth, lettered in black at spine and upper board. Cloth a little marked and handled and binding slightly slanted. Some spotting, mostly to preliminary leaves and leaf margins. Former owner bookplate to front pastedown. A good, bright copy of this scarce Hercule Poirot mystery, his seventh appearance in book form. Lacking the uncommon dust wrapper. £200

ARTHUR C.CLARKE. Prelude to Space. Sidgwick & Jackson, London 1953. The first UK and first casebound edition of Clarke’s first published science fiction novel (first issued in 1951 as a cheap science fiction paperback by Galaxy Science Fiction, and here quite heavily revised). 176pp. Red cloth, lettered in black at spine. Cloth fractionally rubbed at tips of corners and head and base of spine. Former owner name and date inked to front endpaper and small dealer plate to front pastedown. Tiny stain to lower margin of ten leaves but no text impacted. A very crisp and bright copy of a scarce volume, in pictorial dust wrapper, creased and a little dust marked, with two short jagged tears and some loss to spine extremities and rear panel. £100

J.M.COETZEE. Life and Times of Michael K. Secker & Warburg, London 1983. The first UK edition, first impression of Coetzee’s first Booker Prize winner. 249pp. Black cloth lettered and ruled in gold at spine. A speckling of foxing to top edge and just a hint more to fore edge. A virtually fine copy in price-clipped dust wrapper, a little faded at spine panel. Neat former owner gift inscription. £75

BARON CORVO. [FREDERICK ROLFE].  Venice Letters. Edited and introduced by Cecil Woolf. Cecil & Amerlai Woolf, London 1974. First Edition. 80pp. Blue boards lettered in gold at spine. Pictorial endpapers. Tips of two corners lightly bumped and endpapers lightly spotted. A very good copy in slightly dust marked, double-spread pictorial dust wrapper, a little browned at spine panel and with a single tiny stain to front panel. The first full and complete printing of Rolfe's notorious Venice Letters, sensuously detailing his pederastic activities in Venice between 1909-10. £50

LINDSEY DAVIS.  The Silver Pigs.  A novel.  Sidgwick & Jackson, London 1989.  First Edition.  258pp.  Black cloth, gilt lettered at spine.  Endpapers fractionally browned with a single tiny indentation to fly leaf.  A virtually fine copy in dust wrapper, lightly faded at spine panel.  Former owner bookplate to front pastedown.  The author’s first novel and the first of her acclaimed ‘Falco’ novels.  £250

LOUIS DE BERNIÈRES. The Latin America Trilogy. Complete in three volumes comprising The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts, Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord and The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman. Secker & Warburg, London 1990-1992. First Editions, first impressions. Three volumes all in virtually fine state, page margins just a little tanned as is invariably the case. With non-price-clipped dust wrappers all near fine, one wrapper fractionally rubbed at a few extremities and with a single miniscule closed tear. A really super set of De Bernières’ (a self-confessed  'Márquez parasite’) celebrated first three novels. The first volume was reputedly limited to 2,500 copies. £300

JAMES DICKEY. Deliverance. Hamish Hamilton, London 1970. First UK Edition of Dickey’s celebrated debut novel. 259pp. Blue boards lettered in gold at spine. In fine state with virtually fine dust wrapper, marred only by a near invisible area of chafing to head and base of spine panel. Selected as one of the top 100 Twentieth Century novels by the Modern Library, and also one of Time Magazines 100 best English-language novels written since 1923. Memorably filmed by John Boorman in 1972. £30

ISAK DINESEN (writing as "Pierre Andrezel"). The Angelic Avengers. Putnam, London 1946. First English Edition of Gengaeldelsens Veje, the author’s only full-length novel, published two years earlier in Denmark. 303pp. Red cloth, a little faded and rubbed at extremities, lettered in gold at spine. A bright if rather shaken copy, binding cracked in several places although still sound. In quite handsome pictorial dust wrapper, chipped, internally reinforced and repaired at head of spine panel. English readers were persuaded by the jacket blurb that the novel was the work of a young Oxford-educated Frenchman. £45

ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE. His Last Bow. Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes. John Murray, London 1917. First Edition. 305pp + vi advertisements at rear. Red cloth, lettered in gilt at spine and upper board with a blind stamped border. Spine faded and lettering rather dulled. Tip of a single corner very lightly bumped and top edge a little dust marked. Front hinge quite tender with a little naked webbing visible. Endpapers lightly browned. About a good copy with the handsome bookplate of MP Oswald Lewis. “223

The penultimate Holmes collection, containing seven stories published in Strand Magazine between 1908-13 and the title story from 1917

J.G.FARRELL. The Hill Station. An unfinished novel. And an Indian Diary. Edited by John Spurling. Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London 1981. First Edition, first printing. 228pp. Cream cloth lettered in gold at spine. A little discolouration to extreme top edge of boards and a hint of dust marking to top edge. Ghost of three pencilled numerals to front endpaper. Near fine in very lightly sunned dust wrapper, fractionally rubbed at top edge and with a lengthy yet superficial crease to the front wrapper flap. Farrell’s unfinished manuscript, some 50,000 words, published two years after the author’s death together with a personal memoir by journalist Malcolm Dean (who made a brief appearance in The Singapore Grip as a junior reporter representing the Straits Times) and critical appreciations by Margaret Drabble and the John Spurling. Additionally includes a fascinating forty-two page extract from Farrell’s diary covering a three-month period when he was travelling in India researching his Booker-winning novel The Siege of Krishnapur. £30

WILLIAM FAULKNER.  Intruder in the Dust.  Chatto & Windus, London 1949.  First UK Edition. 247pp. Blue cloth, gilt lettered at spine. Minor bump to base of both boards and just the faintest hint of off-setting to spine. Endpapers browned with a neat by lengthy former owner gift inscription.  A very nice copy in tanned and lightly chipped dust wrapper featuring a Sydney Greenwood colour lithograph.  With two or three small areas of loss.  £75

SEBASTIAN FAULKS.  La Guerra di Charlotte. Translated into Italian by Lidia Perria.  Marco Tropea Editore, Milano 1998.  The correct first edition of "Charlotte Gray". A fine copy in Dust wrapper. The English-language edition was not published until September of 1998, several months after this Italian version.  £40

SEBASTIAN FAULKS. Human Traces. Hutchinson, London 2005. First Edition. 614pp. Black boards, stamped in gold at spine. Maroon endpapers. A fine copy in dust wrapper, somewhat creased at head of spine panel. The author's seventh novel. £10

C.S.FORESTER. Nelson.  John Lane, The Bodley Head Ltd, London 1929. First Edition. 265pp + vi (uncut) publishers catalogue at rear. Blue cloth with gilt lettering to spine and front board. With a portrait frontispiece (by Hoppner). Endpapers browned, fore edges untrimmed and very lightly foxed as are a few preliminary leaves, but only very mildly. Boards very lightly rubbed at one or two extremities and spine a little faded, otherwise a good, sound copy. No dust wrapper.  £65

E.M.FORSTER. The Longest Journey.  William Blackwood & Sons, London & Edinburgh 1907.  First Edition of Forster’s second book. 360pp.  Cloth, gilt lettered at spine and upper board.  Boards marked, and rubbed at tips of corners and head and foot of spine.  Half-title browned. Some sporadic light fox spotting. Indications of partially erased penciled marginalia to some leaves and some occasional underlining. A good, sound copy of a scarce volume (1587 copies were printed).  £300

E.M.FORSTER. Pharos and Pharillon. Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, Richmond 1923. First Edition, of which there were 900 hand-printed copies. 80pp + i publisher’s catalogue. Cloth backed decorated paper boards with paper spine label, tanned and chipped. Boards worn, chafed and a little dusty and discoloured, but binding still very firm. A hint of spotting to endpapers and title page, else very crisp and bright internally with just the occasional hint of spotting to some leaf margins.  Five chapters previously published in The Nation and the Athenaeum with the remainder never previously issued in England - includes the first English translation of any poetry by C.P.Cavafy. £75

JOHN FOWLES. The Collector. Jonathan Cape, London 1963. First Edition of Fowles’ debut novel. 282pp. Russet boards lettered in gold at spine. A light scattering of spotting to top edge, preliminary leaves and margins of some leaves. Faint ghost of former owner pencilled pricing to tip of front endpaper. A very crisp and bright copy in price-clipped pictorial dust wrapper, with just a fraction of tanning to spine panel and a hint of spotting to rear panel and flaps. £300

JOHN FOWLES AND FAY GODWIN. Islands. Jonathan Cape, London 1978. First Edition, first impression. Square 4to. 108pp. Brown boards lettered in gold at spine. Illustrated with fifty splendid Fay Godwin photographic plates, with numerous other photographs in the text. In fine state with find dust wrapper. A lengthy essay on the Scilly Isles by Fowles, accompanies by Godwin’s superb images. £20

GEORGE MACDONALD FRASER. The Steel Bonnets. The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers. Barrie and Jenkins, London 1971. First Edition. 404pp. Royal 8vo. two-tone cloth with red panel and silver lettering to spine. Map illustrated endpapers. With a frontispiece, 18 plates and 3 maps including a large fold-out map secured to the rear-pastedown. Minor staining to lower edge, else a fine copy in very good dust wrapper, just a little rubbed at head and foot of spine panel and at one or two other extremities. Laid-in is a short letter signed by the author. £250

ROBERT GRAVES. Mockbegger Hall. With a magnificent cover design by William Nicholson. Leonard & Virginia Woolf, The Hogarth Press, Tavistock Square London 1924. First Edition. 4to. 79pp + iv publisher’s catalogue at rear. Paper covered boards featuring Nicholson’s superb bat illustration. Lightly bumped at the tip of a single corner and a little chafing to others. Tear to the plain paper covering at spine resulting in two tiny areas of loss. Internally in really super state. Former owner plate to rear pastedown. Fourteen poems including a fragment of Greek satire, translated by Graves and published here in English for the first time, an eclogue and a play by Basanta Mallik, edited, “re-Enligshed” and with a prologue by Graves. A very good copy of a scarce and quite fragile production. £300

Graves was married to William Nicholson’s daughter Nancy and the artist illustrated a number of his son-in-laws early works, although this one is surely the best.

GRAHAM GREENE.  The Ministry of Fear.  An Entertainment. The Viking Press, New York, 1943.  First American Edition. 239pp.  From a print run of 4000 copies. Black cloth, lettered in blue and white at spine and upper board. Boards spotted and lightly handled and cloth very lightly rubbed at some extremities. Former owner name partially erased. Page margins very lightly tanned. In striking Adler-Lubalin dust wrapper, a little tanned and dust marked and quite fragile, with some loss to head and foot of spine panel and notable wear and tears along natural folds of front panel and flap.  £220

THOM GUNN. Fighting Terms. Poems. Fantasy Press, Oxford 1954. First Edition, second issue (incorporating a single minor textual correction to the poem Tamer and Hawk). 44pp. Cloth a little marked and handled. Endpapers really quite browned, yet otherwise an extremely fresh copy internally. Twenty-five poems, the author’s first substantial book. The first and second states comprised only 305 copies. No dust wrapper, as issued. £175

THOMAS HARRIS. The Silence of the Lambs. William Heinemann, London 1989. The first UK edition, first printing with the correct 1988 copyright line. 294pp. Black boards lettered in silver at spine. Page margins lightly tanned as is often the case, else in fine state with fine price-clipped dust wrapper. Harris’ third novel, and the second featuring his notorious Hannibal Lecter character, famously realised on-screen by Anthony Hopkins. Winner of the 1988 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel. £45

SEAMUS HEANEY. North. Faber, London 1975. First Edition, first impression – the casebound issue. 73pp. Blue cloth lettered in gold at spine. Boards and top edge spotted with some browning from the wrapper flaps to endpapers and a little spotting to one (blank) preliminary leaf. A very good copy in dust wrapper, lightly faded at spine panel and blemished at flaps. Twenty-four poems, Heaney’s fifth collection. £350

ERNEST HEMINGWAY. A Farewell to Arms. Cape, London 1929. First UK Edition, second issue (with the spelling error on pp.6 corrected). 349pp. Pink cloth, lettered in gold at spine and with publisher’s motif blind-stamped to rear board. Top edge dust marked and cloth faded at spine panel. A hint of browning to endpapers and spotting to margins of half-title and final (blank) leaf. Former owner armorial bookplate to front pastedown. A very good copy, lacking the dust wrapper. £75

ERNEST HEMINGWAY. For Whom the Bell Tolls. Jonathan Cape, London / Thacker & Co., Bombay 1944. The first Indian edition, set and printed in Bombay. 462pp. Grey cloth, lettered in red at spine. Illustrated with stills from the Paramount movie Covers very slightly faded at some edges. Quite a bright copy in rather frayed and tanned dust wrapper. Inked inscription of former owner to front endpaper. £50

PETER HØEG. Smilla's Sense of Snow. Translated from the Danish by Tina Nunnally. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York 1993. First American Edition. 453pp. Just a fraction of rubbing at head and foot of spine, else a fine copy in very lightly rubbed and marked dust wrapper. Høeg’s celebrated third novel. £50

ROBERT E.HOWARD. A Gent from Bear Creek. Donald M.Grant, Rhode Island 1965. First US Edition of the author’s first book, a collection of 13 stories. 732 copies were published. In virtually fine state with dust wrapper, tanned at spine panel, a little dust marked and internally reinforced to conceal several small areas of loss. This collection was first published in the UK in 1937, a year after the author’s death, a volume so fugitive that it has acquired near-legendary status. Howard is more commonly known as the creator of Conan the Barbarian, making him the godfather of the sword and sorcery subgenre. £50

CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD. Mr. Norris Changes Trains. Leonard & Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press, London 1935. First Edition of Isherwood’s third novel, and the first of his celebrated Berlin books. 1730 copies were printed. 280pp. Cloth extremely marked and faded with some fairly minor wear to rear gutter and head and base of spine with a number of small indentations to backstrip. A tiny hint of spotting to endpapers and several preliminary leaves and some browning to the half-title. Handsome former owner bookplate to front pastedown. Not the prettiest copy and lacking the very scarce John Banting dust wrapper, but really quite bright internally, and certainly a worthy contender for rebinding. £250

CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD. Sally Bowles. Leonard & Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press, London 1937. First Edition of this Isherwood novella, this fourth solo publication, a Berlin story subsequently incorporated into Goodbye to Berlin. 150pp. A hint of tanning to cloth at spine otherwise a lovely fresh copy, internally in virtually fine state. Neat former owner ink-stamp to front endpaper. Lacking the scarce dust wrapper. £125

CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD. Goodbye to Berlin. The Hogarth Press, London 1939. First Edition, first printing. 317pp. Oatmeal cloth lettered in red at spine (as required for the first binding). Cloth a little sunned, tanned and marked in several places. Spine lettering and publisher's red stain at top edge a little faded. Some light browning to endpapers and two tiny blemishes to title page. Light superficial creases to the tips of a number leaves. 3350 copies were printed. A very crisp and bright copy of Isherwood’s desirable and justly celebrated collection of six short stories and novellas set in pre-Nazi Berlin and the inspiration for John van Druten’s play I am a Camera and the award-winning musical Cabaret. Missing the incredibly scarce dust wrapper. Four of these pieces had appeared in print previously, three in John Lehmann’s anthology New Writing and one, Sally Bowles, published as a separate volume by the Hogarth Press. “Brilliant sketches of a society in decay” – George Orwell. £350

KAZUO ISHIGURO.  An Artist of the Floating World. Faber & Faber, London 1986. First Edition (second state - printed by Richard Clay Ltd) of Ishiguro's second book. 206pp. Black cloth with gilt lettering to spine. Slight lean to binding, otherwise a virtually fine copy similar, non-price-clipped dust wrapper, with just a hint of rubbing to head of spine panel.  £40

KAZUO ISHIGURO. The Remains of the Day. Faber, London 1989. First Edition, first printing. 245pp. Black boards lettered in white at spine. Neat former owner gift inscription inked to corner of front endpaper. In fine state with virtually fine price-clipped dust wrapper, just a hint of spotting to wrapper flaps. Ishiguro’s third novel, winner of the 1989 Booker Prize. £95

PHILIP KERR. The 'Berlin Noir' trilogy, complete in three volumes comprising March Violets, The Pale Criminal and A German Requiem. Viking, London 1989, 1990 & 1991. First editions. Individual volume descriptions as follows. March Violets (1989). This copy inscribed by the author on the title-page. 245pp. Corners lightly knocked and a hint of browning to leaf margins, else in virtually fine state with dust wrapper, somewhat faded at spine panel. The Pale Criminal (1990). 272pp. A hint of miscellaneous marking to upper and lower boards, else in fine state with virtually fine price-clipped dust wrapper, just fractionally rubbed at top edge. A German Requiem (1991). 306pp. In virtually fine state with dust wrapper, lightly rubbed at top edge. An exceptionally crisp and bright set of Kerr’s masterful first Bernie Gunther trilogy. £350

HANIF KUREISHI.  The Buddha of Suburbia.  Faber, London 1991.  First Edition of the author’s first novel.  284pp.  Black cloth, white lettered at spine.  Leaves tanned as is invariably the case with Faber productions of this period, else a fine copy in fine dust wrapper.  £15

T.E.LAWRENCE. Donald Weeks. T.E.Lawrence. An hitherto unknown Biographical/ Bibliographical Note. Privately printed at the Tragara Press, Edinburgh 1983. First Edition, limited to 230 copies. 16pp. Somerville laid paper sewn into stiff card wrappers with title label. A detailed and scholarly analysis of T.E.L’s proof corrections to Wilfred Ewart's Scots Guard - the only known copy of any book corrected by Lawrence, involving over 200 corrections, all of which bar four were incorporated into the final book. Also details of Lawrence’s association with John Gawsworth's who masterminded the collaboration. In fine state. £30

LAURIE LEE. The Bloom of Candles. Verse from a Poet’s Year. John Lehmann, London 1947. First Edition, printed at the Craxton Press, Christchurch New Zealand. Paper covered boards lettered in black at upper board. Endpapers lightly browned and paper stock just a little tanned. A small portrait of the author has been pasted to the blank leaf adjacent to the title page. Former owner name neatly inked to front endpaper. A very good copy in dust wrapper, just a little tanned and with a single minuscule tear. Twelve poems. £45

LAURIE LEE. Lynton Lamb. A Rose for Winter. Travels in Andalusia. The Hogarth Press, London 1955. First Edition. 160pp. Red cloth, lettered in gold at spine with a single tiny vignette. Photographic frontispiece. Fractionally rubbed at head and base of spine, else in virtually fine state with dust wrapper, featuring a handsome Lynton Lamb drawing, lightly faded at spine panel, rubbed at spine extremities and internally reinforced. Rear panel lightly tanned. Former owner details inked to front endpaper. Lee’s account of his return to Spain fifteen years after his adventures during the Spanish Civil War. £75

LAURIE LEE. Two Women. A Book of Words and Pictures. Andre Deutsch, London 1983. First Edition - the suppressed first issue, subsequently recalled and pulped as it contains a double-spread nude photograph of his wife. Unpaginated. Red cloth lettered in gold at spine. Illustrated endpapers. Lavishly illustrated with nearly eighty photographs by the author, many in colour, full-page or double-spread, of his wife and daughter accompanied by a charming text detailing his experiences of marriage and fatherhood. Minor bump to base of spine and a hint of spotting to top edge. In virtually fine state with dust wrapper, rubbed and a little creased to top edge and with a little light chafing to base of spine panel. £50

PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR. Roumeli. Travels in Northern Greece. John Murray, London  1966. First Edition, first printing. 248pp. Blue cloth lettered in gold at spine and with a small gold vignette to upper board. With 20 photographs and a sketch map by John Craxton. Tip bump to the base of spine and tips of two corners, else in fine state with handsome Craxton dust wrapper, lightly rubbed at head of spine panel, a fraction dust marked at rear panel and with a single miniscule tear. The companion volume to Leigh Fermr’s Mani, published eight years earlier. £85

MALCOLM LOWRY. Hear us O Lord from Heaven thy Dwelling Place. Cape, London 1962. First UK Edition. 283pp. Blue cloth, gilt lettered at spine. Endpapers very lightly browned and with a single small tape residue mark. A very good copy in pictorial price-clipped dust wrapper. Published posthumously, this is a collection of three short novels and four stories that was nearing completion upon Lowry death. Two of the stories were previously published in periodicals during the author’s lifetime and the remaining works include Lowry’s manuscript revisions. £30

MALCOLM LOWRY. Dark as the Grave wherein my Friend in Laid. General Publishing Company, Canada 1968. First Canadian Edition, published simultaneously with the US edition and preceding the first UK edition. 255pp. Black cloth, lettered and ruled in red and orange at spine. Cloth just a little marked at top edge. A very good copy, just a little dusty. Former owner gift inscription inked to first blank preliminary leaf. In price-clipped dust wrapper, just a little marked, and chafed at top edge. Published posthumously, complete and edited from Lowry’s original manuscript by wife Margerie Bonner and his biographer Douglas Day. £35

LOUIS MACNEICE. The Agamemnon of Aeschylus. Translated and introduced by Louis MacNeice. Faber, London 1936. First Edition, first printing. 59pp preceded by a three-page preface by the translator, dated 1 August 1936. Louis MacNeice’s third book. Laid-in is a folder four-page flyer for the first production, with Robert Speaight as Agamemnon and music by Benjamin Britten (MacNeice performed the Greek commentary). Purple cloth lettered in gold at spine. Bottom edges rough-trimmed. A tiny smattering to spotting to top edge, else an exceptionally crisp and bright copy in dust wrapper, a little rubbed at top edge with several short tears, some fading to spine panel and a single lengthy closed tear to base of rear panel. Small enclosed chip to front panel but resulting in no loss. The ghost of two partially erased pencilled names and numerals can be faintly discerned at the head of the front panel. £150

JOHN MASEFIELD. The Midnight Folk. A novel. Heinemann, London 1927. First Trade Edition (following a limited edition of 265 signed copies). 327pp. Blue cloth lettered in gold at spine and upper board. A tiny hint of browning and spotting to half-title, else an extremely crisp and bright copy in pictorial dust wrapper, lightly rubbed at several extremities and dust marked at rear panel and with two closed tears. Neat former owner name inked to front endpaper. A super copy of Masefield’s celebrated childhood classic, marking the first appearance of his hero Kay Harker. £150

JOHN MASEFIELD. The Box of Delights or When the Wolves were Running. William Heinemann, London 1935. First Edition, first impression of Masefield’s seminal children’s classic. 418pp. Blue cloth, lettered in gold at spine and upper board. Publisher’s motif blind-stamped to rear board. Top edge dust marked and spine a little sunned. Handsome decorated endpapers featuring colour designs by Masefield’s daughter Judith. A little light spotting to preliminary leaves and a neat former owner name inked to a blank preliminary leaf. A slightly dusty copy of a scarce and desirable volume, alas missing the scarce dust wrapper. The sequel to Masefield’s 1927 novel The Midnight Folk continuing the adventures of Kay Harker, and yet curiously a far more fugitive title that its predecessor. £150

BRIAN MOORE.  The Feast Of Lupercal. Andre Deutsch, London 1958. First Edition. 240pp. Red linson with gilt lettering to spine. Top edge just a little dust marked and endpapers very slightly marked, otherwise an extremely good copy. In attractive Stephen Russ-illustrated, non-price-clipped dust wrapper, nicked at head and tail of spine, and with a couple of tears and creases to spine panel. The authors scarce second "serious" novel. £165

PATRICK O’BRIAN (under the name Patrick Russ). Beasts Royal. Putnam, London 1934. First edition. The author's second book, written at the age of 19. 84pp. Colour frontispiece and eight black and white plates by C.F.Tunnicliffe. The colour frontispiece is also mounted on the upper panel of the dust wrapper. Top edge dusty. Top edges of last page of text and final blank nicked and very slightly creased. Covers slightly marked. Spine slightly faded. Head and tail of spine and corners slightly bumped. Head and tail of spine and cover edges faded. Endpapers partially browned. Prelims, edges and endpapers slightly spotted. Front endpapers slightly rust-marked from a paperclip. Cracks between two gatherings. Some pages slightly marked and/or thumbed and/or dusty. Good in nicked, chipped, rubbed, marked and dusty, price-clipped dust wrapper browned at the spine and edges and internally. £575

JOHN COWPER POWYS. Maiden Castle. Simon & Schuster, New York 1936. First Edition (preceding the English edition by nearly three months). 539pp. Green cloth with handsome pictorial spine label. With a handsome unaccredited title page illustration repeated, in colour, on the dust wrapper. Cloth a little marked in places with some fading to the publisher details at foot of spine. Just a tiny hint of spotting to front endpaper, else an extremely crisp and bright copy in dust wrapper, tanned at spine and with some loss to head and base of spine panel. A total of 4500 copies were printed, which included a second impression later the same year. £45

T.F.POWYS. Black Bryony. With woodcuts by R.A.Garnett. Chatto & Windus, London 1923. First edition. 184pp. Two-tone cloth with paper spine label and a spare tipped-in at rear. With a frontispiece and tissue protector and five splendid full page wood engravings by R.A.Garnett. A fine copy in triflingly tanned and dusty dust wrapper. £75

THOMAS PYNCHON. V. Jonathan Cape, London 1963. The first UK Edition, first printing of Pynchon’s debut novel. 492pp. Boards very lightly marked with a single tiny indentation to base of lower board and a hint of wear to one corner. A little light shelf-wear to head and base of spine. Several extremely minor blemishes to front endpaper including the ghost of several partially erased pencilled numerals. A light, lengthy crease, probably a production fault, to a single leaf. In the correct first state wrapper with a horizontal advert for Catch 22 to rear flap, price-clipped with a lengthy crease to spine panel and two small strips of tanning to front and back panels. Some very minor chafing to several extremities and a small stain to corner of rear panel. Not pristine, but a very crisp and bright copy of a major novel. £100

JEAN RHYS. Good Morning Midnight. Constable, London 1939. The second issue, of Rhys’ scarce fourth novel, cased in green cloth and issued without endpapers. 272pp. Top- and fore edge spotted and with a hint of spotting to half-title. Neat former owner gift inscription. Quite a crisp and bright copy in price-clipped dust wrapper, with a little chafing to tips of corners and head of spine panel and some evidence of handling. £275

JEAN RHYS. Tigers are Better Looking. With a selection from The Left Bank. Stories. Andre Deutsch, London 1968. First Edition. 236pp. Red cloth lettered and ruled in gold at spine. Top- and fore-edge edge lightly spotted and a minor ridge to the spine. A very good copy in handsome pictorial dust wrapper designed by Barbara Brown, fractionally rubbed at head and base of spine and with a little tanning to rear panel. A collection of eight short stories written since 1939 and all hitherto unpublished in book-form, plus a selection of ten further stories taken from her first book, The Left Bank, originally published in 1927. £35

PHILIP ROTH.  I Married a Communist.  Jonathan Cape, London 1998.  First UK Edition, first impression. 323pp. Black cloth, gilt lettered at spine. A fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper, just fractionally faded at spine panel. The middle volume of Roth's remarkable second Zuckerman trilogy, preceded by American Pastoral and followed by The Human Stain. This work is regarded by some as the author's response to Claire Bloom's (his ex-wife) attacks on him in her autobiography Leaving a Dolls' House.  £20

V.SACKVILLE-WEST. William Nicholson. Knole and the Sackvilles. William Heinemann, London 1922. First Edition, first printing. Large 8vo. xvi + 230pp. White buckram lettered in black at spine and featuring a superb William Nicholson drawing to the upper board. Publisher’s motif black-stamped to corner of lower board. With a tissue-guarded frontispiece and twenty-three plates, plus a Chronology. A hint of shelf-wear to head and base of spine and a minor bump to the head and base of rear board. Endpapers lightly and partially browned. A hint of spotting to preliminary leaves. A really superbly preserved copy in the scarce dust wrapper, reproducing in red Nicholson’s upper board drawing. Wrapper tanned at spine panel and with some notable fading to the lettering, a little dust marked and chafed at one or two extremities. A classic in the literature of English country houses. £500

TOM SHARPE.  Blott on the Landscape.  Secker & Warburg, London 1975.  First Edition. 233pp. Black cloth with gilt lettering to spine. Cloth fractionally rubbed at head and foot of spine and with a very slight lean to the spine, else a very good copy, albeit printed on fairly poor quality paper, now a little tanned at edges. In slightly marked and discoloured dust wrapper with a minor scuff to rear panel. The author's fourth and most famous book. £50

GERTRUDE STEIN. Cecil Beaton. Wars I Have Seen. With photographs and a delightful dust wrapper design by Cecil Beaton. B.T.Batsford, London 1945. First Edition. 191pp. Blue cloth, lettered and ruled in navy blue at spine.  With a portrait frontispiece and three plates, all from photographs by Cecil Beaton. Evidence of former owner bookplate removal from front endpaper, otherwise a very good, bright copy, albeit printed on quite cheap wartime paper. In handsome panoramic Cecil Beaton dust wrapper, just fractionally rubbed at head and base of spine panel. Stein’s account of German-occupied France, written in secret under the noses of the Nazi’s quartered in her house. £50

ALEXANDER STUART.  The War Zone.  Hamish Hamilton, London 1989.  First Edition.  207pp.  Red cloth, gilt lettered at spine. A fine copy in dust wrapper, fractionally rubbed at top edge, else fine.  The author's second novel, winner of the 1989 Whitbead Prize, although almost instantly stripped of the award following disagreement amongst the judges owing to the novels controversial story.  Tim Roth’s directorial debut was an equally harrowing cinema adaptation in 1999.  £20

GRAHAM SWIFT.  Learning to Swim and Other Stories.  London Magazine Editions, London 1982.  First Edition of the author’s third and scarcest book. 146pp.  Green cloth, gilt lettered at spine. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. Eleven short stories. Swift did not publish any further short story collections for twenty-six years.  £250

ELIZABETH TAYLOR. Palladian. Peter Davies, London 1946. First Edition of Taylor’s uncommon second novel. 191pp. Orange cloth, lettered in green at spine. Top edge spotted else a very crisp and bright copy, albeit printed on cheap wartime paper stock. In handsome pictorial dust wrapper, tanned at spine and rear panel, with several small areas of loss, primarily to head of spine. Former owner details neatly inked to front endpaper. £95

ELIZABETH TAYLOR. Blaming. Chatto & Windus, London 1976. First Edition first impression. 190pp. Brown boards, lettered and ruled in gold at spine. A hint of spotting to top edge else in fine state with handsome Angelica Garnett designed dust wrapper, lightly creased at head of spine panel and with a little spotting to flaps. The author’s last novel, completed just before she died and published posthumously. Angelica Garnett is the illegitimate daughter of Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell. £25

J.R.R.TOLKIEN AND E.V.GORDON. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Edited and introduced by J.R.R.Tolkien and E.V.Gordon. The Clarendon Press, Oxford 1925. First Edition, first printing. xxvii + 211pp. Green cloth lettered in gold at spine, with a gold border and vignette to upper board and a blind ruled at rear. With a frontispiece and one plate, plus a bibliography and an extensive glossary. Errata Slip. Cloth just a little rubbed at head and base of spine panel and extreme tips of several corners. A single tiny scratch to the cloth at upper board. A remarkably crisp and bright copy, just fractionally shy of fine. Lack the scarce dust wrapper. Tolkien’s second book, a translation of the noted 14^th Century Middle English romance.  Very desirable in this condition. £275

KURT VONNEGUT JR. God Bless You Mr Rosewater. Or Pearls Before Swine. Jonathan Cape, London 1965. The scarcer first English edition, first printing (in the purple boards not the subsequent black binding). 217pp. Publisher’s dye to top edge perhaps a touch faded, else in fine state with dust wrapper, a little rubbed and chafed at edges and with a single closed tear to rear panel. Vonnegut’s fifth novel, published four years before Slaughterhouse Five, his sixth, £85

EVELYN WAUGH. A Handful of Dust. Chapman & Hall, London 1934. First Edition, first printing of Waugh’s fourth and probably most celebrated novel. 8vo. 348pp + iii publisher’s advertisements at rear. Publisher’s familiar red and black decorated cloth, lettered in gold at spine. With a frontispiece illustration by J.D.M.Harvey. Minor slant to binding. Cloth a little faded at spine and lightly rubbed at head and base and with just a fraction of wear to base of upper and lower boards. Minor bump to tip of a single corner. A little spotting throughout, but mostly confined to margins. A crisp and bright copy of a very scarce volume, inevitably lacking the almost mythical dust wrapper. £500

H.G.WELLS.  The Invisible Man.  A Grotesque Romance.  C.Arthur Pearson Limited, London 1897.  First Edition with the correct first state points. 245pp.  Red cloth, gilt lettered and ruled at spine, with gilt titles to upper board and a black illustration. Binding a little cocked, top edge dust marked and cloth faded and a little rubbed at spine.  Paper tanned.  Binding a little tender.  An extremely bright copy.  Neat contemporary name inked to front endpaper. £600

PATRICK WHITE.  The Tree of Man.  Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1956.  First Edition.  499pp.  Navy blue cloth, gilt lettered at spine.  A virtually fine copy, just the faintest hint of browning to endpapers and a neat former owner name to front pastedown (obscured by wrapper flap).  In super pictorial dust wrapper, very lightly rubbed at top edge and lightly marked in one or two places at rear panel.  White’s fourth novel. £45

T.H.WHITE.  England Have My Bones. Collins 1936. First edition. 357 pages with woodcut plates by the author. Some foxing, mainly confined to preliminary and last leaves and to the edges of the pages. Free endpapers a little browned. Cloth, with spine lettering slightly faded and extremities slightly bumped. Very good in the dust wrapper (also by White) which is a very little torn at the head of the spine and with slight interior stain at its base. £100

T.H.WHITE.  A Joy Proposed. Poems. With an Introduction, Afterword and Notes by Kurth Sprague.  Bertram Rota, London 1980.  First Edition. Number 43 of a limited edition to 500 numbered copies. 73pp. Maroon cloth, gilt lettered at spine. In fine state with virtually fine dust wrapper, just fractionally chaffed at top edge. Sixty poems, some hitherto unpublished and some appearing previously only in periodicals. Twenty-seven of these poems were only previously published in Verses, a privately printed issue of only 1000 copies.  £35

VIRGINIA WOOLF. To the Lighthouse. Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, Tavistock Square 1927. First Edition. One of 3000 copies. 320pp. Blue cloth, faded at spine and lightly rubbed at head and base. A little discolouration to top inch of upper board and a little light marking to rear board. Cloth very lightly rubbed at tips of corners, one of which is also gently knocked. Endpapers browned and just a hint of tanning to leave margins. A very bright and fresh copy of Woolf’s celebrated and extremely desirable fifth novel. Lacking the highly fugitive Vanessa Bell dust wrapper. £500

VIRGINIA WOOLF. A Room of One’s Own. Leonard & Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press, London 1929. First Trade Edition, following a limited edition of 492 signed copies. 172pp. Russet cloth lettered in gold at spine, spine lettering dust a little dulled. Tips of corners fractionally knocked. Endpapers browned and a hint of spotting to upper edge of half-title and final two text leaves. Very good indeed, but missing the Vanessa Bell dust wrapper. 3,040 copies were printed. £175

VIRGINIA WOOLF. The Common Reader. Second Series. Leonard & Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press, London 1932. First Edition, first printing. 270pp. Green cloth lettered in gold at spine. A hint of dust marking to top edge. Endpapers fractionally browned and with a neat former owner inked name and date. Spine perhaps just a fraction darkened. A very good copy in the quite scarce Vanessa Bell dust wrapper, a little tanned, quite faded at spine panel and with a little loss to head and base and several short nicks. 3,200 copies were printed. A collection of twenty-six “unprofessional” critical essays with subjects ranging from Robinson Crusoe, Dorothy Osborne, De Quincey, Mary Wollstonecraft and Thomas Hardy, most reprinted from periodicals but some appearing in print here for the first time. £195

W.B.YEATS. A Full Moon in March. Macmillan, London 1935. First Edition, limited to 2,000 copies. 69pp. Green cloth, gilt lettered at spine. Fore and bottom edges untrimmed. Boards just a little marked and discoloured and with some light wear to head and foot of spine, but an especially clean and bright copy internally. Missing the dust wrapper. Two plays and a selection of verse. £45