London: Secker & Warburg, 1980

8vo, pp. 278. Original red boards, lettered in gilt to spine. Printed dust jacket, author's photographic portrait to rear flap. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket.

First edition, INSCRIBED BY WILSON TO HIS EDITOR JOHN BLACKWELL: 'to John Blackwell who, as on previous occasions, made the book much less bad than it might have been. Andrew'. Wilson's fourth novel.

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 as well as A.N. Wilson, was literary midwife to J. M. Coetzee, Michael Moorcock, John Banville, Tom McGuane, Malcolm Bradbury and Louis de Bernieres.