London: Collins, 1979

8vo, pp. 307. Original grey boards, lettered in black to spine. Illustrated dust jacket, author's photographic portrait to rear flap. A fine copy in a very near fine price-clipped dust jacket with a single small scuff to foot of spine.

First edition of the author's first novel. INSCRIBED BY DUNNE TO HIS EDITOR JOHN BLACKWELL: 'To John, without whose advice and assistance, this book actually was written. Colin D.'. One of eight novels by the prominent British journalist.

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. He was Tom Sharpe's editor, and was literary midwife to J. M. Coetzee, Michael Moorcock, John Banville, Tom McGuane, Malcolm Bradbury and Louis de Bernieres, among many others. Colin Dunne moved to Secker and Warburg from Collins in the 1980s.

An excellent copy, with an association to match.