London: The Bodley Head, 1983

8vo, pp. 176. Original brown boards, lettered in gilt to spine. Illustrated dustwrapper. A fine copy in a fine dustwrapper.

First edition. RAY GALTON'S COPY, INSCRIBED TO HIM BY HIS WRITING PARTNER JOHN ANTROBUS: ' To Ray, "Happy Christmas '83" Love John. The author's first novel, and winner of the Triple First Award.

Ray Galton (and Alan Simpson) invented the sitcom with Hancock's Half Hour, and scaled the genre's heights with Steptoe and Son. John Antrobus co-wrote Carry On Sergeant (1958) and (with Ray Galton) The Wrong Arm of the Law (1963). Together they wrote the peerlessly titled stage play When Did You Last See Your Trousers? (1988).