SUTHERLAND, Joan

Montreux: N.p., 1993

2pp. ALS on headed notepaper ('Joan Sutherland' over a floral design, light red on cream). Original envelope present, address handwritten, postmarked 23.11.93. Colour photograph of Sutherland and McKern on location for On Our Selection in Braidwood, Australia, taken the following year.

2pp. ALS FROM JOAN SUTHERLAND TO LEO MCKERN, FONDLY REMEMBERING THEIR RECENT MEETING AND LOOKING FORWARD TO WORKING TOGETHER ON DAD AND DAVE: ON OUR SELECTION.

In 1994, four years after her retirement from the operatic stage, Dame Joan Sutherland returned to her native Australia to make what would turn out to be her only dramatic film: Dad and Dave:On Our Selection, written and directed by George Whaley. Based on the writings of Steele Rudd, the film, set in Queensland at the end of the nineteenth century, starred Geoffrey Rush, Ray Barrett, Noah Taylor -- and Leo McKern as Dad Rudd. Joan Sutherland played Mother Rudd, with not entirely satisfactory results, and the film, made to mark the centenary of the Australian film industry, was a failure with both critics and paying audiences.

This letter dates from the early days of Sutherland and McKern's association, is written on Sutherland's personalised notepaper and sent from her home in the Swiss village of Les Avants, and looks forward, albeit nervously, to the forthcoming shoot:

'[I]f nothing else convinced me to become involved in the film your honest, down-to-earthness did. I hope, if it all gets sorted out that I shan't be too much out of my depth!'

Accompanying the letter is a photograph, taken on location the following year, of a laughing Sutherland and McKern in costume.

MANTEL, Hilary

London: Viking, 1995

8vo, pp. 250. Original black boards, lettered in silver on spine.

First edition SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR.

SOMERVILLE, E. OE, and ROSS, Martin [pseud. MARTIN, Violet]

London: Ivor Nicholson & Watson, 1932

Large 8vo, pp. 265. Original blue boards, lettered in black on red spine label to spine, Bushe coat of arms in gilt on red label to... [please click on the image or book title for more details]

Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1980

4to, pp. 157. Original grey boards, lettered in light grey and black on front panel and spine.

First edition, INSCRIBED... [please click on the image or book title for more details]

ATKINSON, Kate

London: Doubleday: 1995

8vo, pp. 333. Original blue boards, lettered in silver on spine.

First edition, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR.

Winner of the Whitbread... [please click on the image or book title for more details]

WAUGH, Evelyn

London: Chapman & Hall, 1932

8vo, pp. 323. Original purple cloth, lettered in gilt to spine. Device in gilt to front panel. Top edge gilt, leading and lower edges... [please click on the image or book title for more details]