London: Secker & Warburg, 1956

8vo, pp. 412. Original brown boards, lettered in gilt to spine. Illustrated dustwrapper, author's photographic portrait to rear panel. A little toning to text block, but a very well preserved copy in a very good dustwrapper with some tape reinforcement to a couple of closed tears at folds and spine ends.

First edition. ALS FROM THE AUTHOR LAID IN.

On two handwritten postcards Wilson thanks a Mrs. Huggett of Cookham for her complimentary letter: '[I]t helps greatly to be encouraged, especially for a writer whose art is so solitary that he really never knows whether people put his books down the drain or what. As to TV, the Guardian critic said I looked like Margaret Rutherford. A compliment? Angus Wilson'. A postscript on the second card reads: 'The Guardian reviewer was a woman called Nancy Banks-Smith.'

A nice copy; an excellent enclosure.