London: Secker & Warburg, 1979

8vo, pp. 167. Original olive green boards, lettered in gilt to spine. Illustrated dust jacket. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket.

First edition, INSCRIBED BY BARNETT TO HIS EDITOR JOHN BLACKWELL: 'To John Blackwell, whose fine tuning made Backfire run on all cylinders. Highest regards, James Barnett 13/2/79'. The first title (of five) in the Owen Smith series.

John Blackwell [1937-1997] joined Secker and Warburg in the late 1960s, when the imprint was still an independent company run by Fredric Warburg himself. He was a constant presence through the company's innumerable corporate takeovers, mergers and changes of managing director. He was Tom Sharpe's editor, and was literary midwife to J. M. Coetzee, Michael Moorcock, John Banville, Tom McGuane, Malcolm Bradbury and Louis de Bernieres, among many others.