London: Boxtree, 1995

8vo, pp. 160. Original blue boards, lettered in gilt to spine. Illustrated dustwrapper. A fine, unread copy in a fine dustwrapper.

First edition, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR: 'Hello Alan, Paul Merton'. From the library of Alan Simpson, but with no other marks of ownership.

The 'Alan' to whom the book is inscribed is Alan Simpson, with Ray Galton the co-creator and writer of Hancock's Half Hour and Steptoe and Son, among many others. In the mid-90s Merton starred in a series of remakes of Galton and Simpson's writing for ITV, and the three were longtime friends.