London: Secker & Warburg, 1972

8vo, pp. 183. Original blue boards, lettered in gilt to spine. Illustrated dust jacket, author’s photographic portrait to rear panel. A fine, unread copy in a very near fine dust jacket with just a little fading to spine.

First UK edition, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR TO HIS EDITOR JOHN BLACKWELL: ‘For John Blackwell, funny not to have met but it [illegible] all the time anyway -- you were better off in Jamaica. George V. Higgins’. The author’s first novel, it was filmed by Peter Yates in 1973 with Robert Mitchum in the title role.

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. As well as Higgins, Blackwell was literary midwife to Secker luminaries J. M. Coetzee, Malcolm Bradbury, Tom McGuane, Tom Sharpe and Louis de Bernieres, among many others.

An all but fine copy.