Harper Lee, beloved of many a reader for her 1960 novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is when compared to many contemporary writers shrouded in mystery. To date To Kill a Mockingbird is her only published novel; she gave her last formal interview in 1960 and has consistently shunned both the limelight and literary examination for decades. Although she is reputed to be a prolific letter writer few examples of her personal correspondence have come to public attention. But as Lee's friends, contemporaries and correspondents begin to die (Nelle Harper Lee was born in 1926) some few of her letters are creeping out. Following the death her close friend, the New York architect Harold Caufield, some of her letters to Caufield were sold privately to a rare book dealer, Erij DuRon. DuRon in turn sold them in 2011 to the Californian retired trial lawyer and book collector, Paul Kennerson. The largest set of Lee's letters to come to market to date comprised 13 examples, written by Lee to a fan, Don Salter. Salter sold them through an on line auction in 2011. Lee's biographer, Charles J Shields, is reported as comparing the rarity of her private correspondence coming to market to that of 'a meteor hitting the earth'. So six letters offered at Christie's New York this week are a rare treasure for the Lee fan and book collector alike, offering revealing insight into one of the 20th century's most beloved and least known authors. Christie's described them as "deep and unguarded correspondence". In one, Lee tells of her shock and delight at the reception of To Kill a Mockingbird: "We were surprised, stunned & dazed by the Princeton Review,” she wrote. “I haven’t recovered my voice on the subject enough to say anything.” In another, of more downbeat tone, she tells of struggles to write. In others she reveals her conflicted feelings towards her hometown, and her adoration for her father, A C Lee, who was the model for Mockingbird's Atticus Finch. The collection of letters, apparently written to Caufield between 1956 and 1961 (some are undated) when she was writing To Kill a Mockingbird and the soon to be published Go Set a Watchman, had a pre-sale estimate of between $150,000 and $250,000. Bidding started at $80,000 but failed to top $90,000 and the letters remained unsold. The auction seemed ideally timed to attract buyers, amidst heightened in interest in Lee's life and works triggered by publication of Marja Miller's controversial biographical insight, Life with Harper Lee last year and just about a month before the much-anticipated publication of Lee's second novel Go Set a Watchman. One wonders whether potential buyers were deterred by sense that Lee herself would not have wished her private correspondence to offered for sale in the first place. Michael Morrison, a representative of Lee's publisher, HarperCollins, is reported as doubting that Lee would happy to hear her letters were being sold. A spokeswoman for Christie’s said that the letters might be re-offered at auction at a later date or could remain with the seller, Paul Kennerson.

Hot on the heels of yesterday's fascinating tour of the London International Antiquarian Book Fair (of which more later), led by a member of Designer Bookbinders, I see there is also an exhibition currently running at the St Bride Foundation featuring the work of current Designer Bookbinder fellows, licentiates and members. Designer Bookbinders is one of the foremost bookbinding societies in the world. Its Fellows are widely credited with an international reputation for 'a progressive influence on the art, design and technique of the handbound book' (Julian Thomas in Kyffin: A Celebration, 2008, p.5).  This may well be true - I have not the experience or skills to judge - but what I can be sure of is that the society's members make some of the most stunningly beautiful books being produced today.  It was such a treat to be able not only to see such well-conceived, achingly visual books but also handle (supervised, and very carefully - I was quite nervous!) a couple during Rare Books London, that a visit to this exhibition to gorge on more is a must for me next weekend. The 'Covered: Beauty and Art in Contemporary Bookbinding"  exhibition, which opened on 27 May and continues to 6 June, features the work of more than 30 bookbinders associated with Designer Bookbinders. It's open daily - from 10.00 am to 5.00 pm Monday to Friday and 11.00 am to 4.00 pm on Saturday. It's a selling exhibition so if you're feeling flush, you can take a souvenir or two home with you. Below are two recent prize-winning bindings from Designer Bookbinders members to give you a flavour of what may be in the exhibition. [caption id="attachment_763" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Urban Birds Published by Incline Press, Oldham 1999.  A collection of cuts by Jo Spaul, with accompanying poems from an English anthology of poetry through the ages. Binding by Jeanette Koch, Designer Bookbinders Fellow[/caption] This binding on Jo Spaul's Urban Birds (Incline Press, 1999) was done by Designer Bookbinders member, Jeanette Koch. It won the 2009 J Hewitt & Son Prize for interesting treatment of leather.  Not only is the binding in itself a work of art but I love the way in which it evokes both bird feathers and an urban, industrial landscape, making it a fitting compliment to the contents of the book (even if the striking colours conjure, for me, images of Birds of Paradise than the usual avian inhabitants of Britain's cities). Spaul's pictures themselves are frequently framed in black or blue, so the colours harmonise too.  The binding is made from a variety of leathers, including ostrich skin and goat's skin. The title has been blind tooled on the front board and little bird's feet have also been tooled on the front and back.  The upper edge is coloured and the endbands made from multicoloured leathers.  Brown paper doublures precede decorated flyleaves. [caption id="attachment_764" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Hannah Brown Binding on Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's[/caption] This binding, by Hannah Brown, of a Folio Society edition of Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's, won the Designer Bookbinders' Mansfield Medal last year.  According to Hannah, her design draws on a specific scene in the book when Holly Go Lightly has a party in her apartment. The front cover shows Holly smoking a long cigarette, surrounded mostly by men. On the reverse, Holly's unnamed cat, who meant more to her than the reader initially thinks, contrasts sharply with the dark blue background. Designer Bookbinders also often show off its members wares on its Twitter feed (@designerbookUK).  

Last two days to catch Trevor Jones exhibition of 58 marvellous bindings never to be seen all together again!@sbf1891 pic.twitter.com/hC2N91KgKA

— Designer Bookbinders (@DesignerbookUK) April 9, 2015

 

Annual Bookbinding Competition entries on show till 24 January. Winning binding: Tom McEwan for The Rubáiyát@sbf1891 pic.twitter.com/4EPmLaGjUn

— Designer Bookbinders (@DesignerbookUK) January 15, 2014

[Updated 03 June 2015. I have made a few silent corrections to this post since it was first published, with the help, sharp eyes and attention to detail of Designer Bookbinders licentiate, Hannah Brown, to whom I have very grateful. Any remaining infelicitations are of course all of my own making.]

 

The Holloway Reading Stand, c. 1892 “For invalids and those accustomed to read themselves asleep it is invaluable..." pic.twitter.com/131m4NMunN

— ✍ Bibliophilia (@Libroantiguo) May 15, 2015

  A few days ago Bibliophilia tweeted this picture. There have been many inventions and gadgets designed to make reading easier over the centuries, but this one has to take the biscuit in terms of completeness and, frankly, its almost robotic nature and appearance. Bibliophilia's tweet prompted a little digging. This particular beauty was marketed by the Holloway Company in Ohio in the 1880s and 1890s after, as the company's 10th edition brochure proclaims, "years of experiment and trial". (The Holloway Company's brochure has been digitized by the good people at The Internet Archive.) Apparently, it sold well - certainly well enough for the company to keep producing it. "Book readers", the company proclaims "know the tiresomeness of holding books in the best position for comfortable reading and the disinclination to lay aside an interesting book to hunt up the dictionary for the pronunciation or definition of unfamiliar words. Such words should be looked up when we meet them." The 'Holloway Reading Stand and Dictionary Holder' was the answer, then, to the reader's prayers, for it held "the open dictionary by your side, only a turn of the head being required to consult it, while the book you are reading is held open before you". Books too heavy to hold when reading? Especially those dang big bibles and encyclopedias? The Holloway Company recognised that "heavy books are little used for want of a suitable holder". Its Reading Stand came to the rescue. "The Reading Stand will hold them at any angle and it affords a permanent holder for your unabridged dictionary, for ready use" by family and friends. There were also health and safety considerations. Holloways were concerned that "many readers, and especially children, contract the unhealthful habit of bending forward when reading...developing serious diseases of the vital organs and an ungraceful form of the body, while eyesight is not unfrequently impaired by reading from books held at an unsuitable angle or focus." The Reading Stand and Dictionary Holder solved all these problems, allowing the reader to adopt "a healthful, comfortable position" and making reading "an intellectual luxury". Nor was the stand for the home only. In the office "where reading is subject to frequent interruption, the hook [on the Stand] may be pushed away from you by the slightest movement of the hand" and the book is "kept open and in place, ready to be resumed at any time". The table part of the stand and the reading-book rest were made of wood finished with a polished natural grain while the rest of the contraption was metal "of a light and artistic design, finished in black polished japan, ornamented with first grade of French gold-leaf bronze." Surely, this was not a device for the masses! The book rest had an independent circular motion allowing it to be tipped to any pitch by using a small lever - the brochure proudly asserts that there are no thumbscrews! The only physical effort required of the reader was to turn the leaves of the book. The Reading Stand could also be used as a writing table and made easy the job of taking notes when reading, when adjusted as shown in the picture above.  "The book and magazine racks on the sides will hold six or eight ordinary-sized books...students and writers will find the above use of the stand of great convenience". It could also be used to assist in the care and entertainment of invalids. Holloways tell their customers that, adjusted for table use, it can be used "for serving refreshments or medicines to invalids sitting or reclining. The table may be quietly turned to or from the bed with a slight push...without moving the stand. Very useful in the sick room".  And adjusted appropriately, the stand could also facilitate reading two books at once.                   And just in case you wanted even more from your Reading Stand, Holloway offered 'optional extras' including the addition of an 'ornamental gold bronze chess board upon [the] upper surface'. In 1892, the year this particular brochure was produced, the Reading Stand and Dictionary Holder was offered for $14.00 (that's about $370 today) and could be shipped all over the world.  The addition of the chess board cost a further $1.00, making a grand total of $15.00. But Holloway were not the only ones to offer the reading public ways to make reading easier, healthier and more enjoyable.  Take a look at a few of these devices!

Book Wheel, 1588

In the late 16th century, engineer Agostino Ramelli described a "book wheel", a device -admittedly a little large for the average modern home - to enable easy access to several books at once in his The Various and Ingenious Machines of Captain Agostino Ramelli (1588).  Remarkably for the time, the Book Wheel featured multiple shelves built to ensure the books stayed at the right angle as the wheel rotated. It seems he never actually built the machine, spending much of his career designing and making military siege machines.  

Microfilm Readers, 1935

In 1935 the magazine Everyday Science and Mechanics offered its readers its vision of the future of reading.  Believing that in years to come all books would be stored on microfilm, it published a picture of what might loosely be called a 20th century equivalent of today's tablet with a glass screen, buttons to turn the pages and hinged screens.   All images of the Holloway Reading Stand and Dictionary Holder are courtesy of the Winterthur Library: Printed Book and Periodical Collection via the Internet Archive.

The Two Nations?

   “Say what you like, our Queen reigns over the greatest nation that ever existed.”

    “Which nation?” asked the young stranger, “for she reigns over two…two nations; between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts and feelings, as if there were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by different breeding, are fed by different food, are ordered by different manners and are not governed by the same laws.”

   “You speak of  -" said Egremont hesitatingly.

---

I was reminded of this passage from Disraeli’s Sybil (Book ii, Chapter 5) as I was browsing through a completely different book, The Two Nations: A Financial Study of English History by Christopher Hollis (New York: Gordon Press, 1975, p. v).  The distinction Disraeli draws is between the rich and the poor, and it is in that sense Hollis quotes the passage. Sybil (London: Henry Colburn, 1845) was published with the sub-title Or the Two Nations, and Disraeli, an influential leader of the Tory party who served two terms as Prime Minister, also coined the phrase and framed the concept of one-nation conservatism.  Disraeli’s conception of one-nation toryism was designed to appeal to the working classes, binding them into an organic and evolutionary societal framework putting strong emphasis on the duty of each citizen to have a care to all other citizens and especially on the duty of the upper classes to practice patronage, paternalism and pragmatism. So influential on conservatism was Disraeli’s thinking that one-nation conservatism remains a force within modern politics, albeit it still focussed on bridging what divides the rich from the poor.  London Mayor, Boris Johnson, is quoted as saying “I am a one-nation Tory.  There is a duty on the part of the rich to the poor and to the needy”; and in his 2006 pamphlet published by the One Nation Group of Conservatives, Tory MP Andrew Tyrie described current Prime Minister, David Cameron as pursuing Disraeli’s one nation approach in the 21^st century much as had Stanley Baldwin and Rab Butler in the 20^th century. [caption id="attachment_726" align="aligncenter" width="215"] Benjamin Disraeli First Earl of Beaconsfield[/caption]   I am struck though how easily Disraeli’s analysis in Sybil parallels the current political debate about the future of the United Kingdom and the two nations of England and Scotland within that Union (down to the fact there is once again a Queen on the throne!).  Although Disraeli’s political career may have been glittering I wouldn’t hold him among the finest of novelist of his era.   Yet, it is the way in which his discourse remains relevant, and applicable, even if it is with the assistance of a shoehorn, to contemporary circumstances that lends a timeless quality to his fiction.  And it demonstrates one of the true pleasures and rewards of reading and book collecting: that a serendipitous stumbling can provoke a moment of reflection.  Is there meat in Sybil for those searching for answers around devolution and Scottish independence? I’d need to give the novel a much closer reading to answer that but I’d be prepared to bet it wouldn’t be a bad aperitif even if it doesn’t make an entrée.    

While browsing in my local independent bookshop, the wonderfully welcoming Wimbledon Books and Music, I noticed a flyer promoting a Pop-Up Bookshop. Anthony Smith, Associate Member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association, will be having his second (how come I missed the first?) Pop-Up Bookshop on Thursday 28th May at the offices of the publishers, John Murray at 50 Albemarle Street.   Smith promises to offer a range of rare and collectible books, including art & architecture, fiction, biography, history and travel with a thematic highlight on the lives of Anglo-Americans in Italy in the 20th century, featuring the editor's copy of Iris Origo's autobiography, Images and Shadows, with their correspondence, and a presentation copy of Lina Waterfield's Castle in Italy.     But it is perhaps his selection of pre-1978 Oxford World Classics that will tempt me to go along.  Many of course will be familiar with the red and white branded modern paperback Oxford World Classics series, with their scholarly but accessible apparatus, but the series dates back to 1901 when it was founded by the publisher Grant Richards.  The imprint was purchased by Oxford University Press in 1904. Some 620 titles (plus some small spin-off sub-series such as the 'Boys Classics" issued between 1904 and 1908 and the omnibus volumes of the 1930s) were published in dust-jacketed hardback prior to 1978 before the series was relaunched in paperback in 1980. If you haven't discovered these lovely little clothbound books yet, there's a treat in store for you.  As the publisher's catalogue proudly proclaimed in 1907 "The best recommendation of 'The World Classics' is the books themselves, which have earned unstinted praise from all the leading critics and the public.... Only the world's literary masterpieces have been, and will be, included series".  But what gives them more appeal to me is their handy yet elegant pocket-size, achieved without compromising the contents and making them perfect for reading on the go. Anthony Smith's pop-up bookshop will have some 150 of these perfect little volumes on offer! Do let me know if anyone is thinking of going. Delighted to meet up. I shall, hopefully, be popping along during my lunch hour. Anthony Smith Pop Up Bookshop will be a John Murray, 50 Albemarle Street, London, W1S 4BD from 10am to 6.00pm on Thursday 28th May 2015. Nearest tube station is Green Park  

Helen Giltrow’s impressive debut novel, The Distance, is a rare thing: a pacey and shocking thriller with plot twists aplenty which also hits home with a lacing of disruptive juxtaposing.  Somewhere in the northern reaches of London, there’s a prison. It purportedly operates an innovative and benign rehabilitation programme for the most egregious offenders. It is in fact run by a criminal gang whose currency is a calloused cruelty, a lethal blend of torture, intimidation and persecution.  The impenetrable barriers surrounding the enclave invite the belief that this is some sort of special place, not quite real, a removal into another time and another place, not our London.  But Giltrow allows her readers no such comfort blanket for around the prison, and in sight of the detainees, ‘free’ London goes on, normal, familiar, and safe, a constant reminder that beyond the novel and outside the prison, chaotic and gruesome mob rule is sometimes only a wire fence away. The Distance dances, albeit occasionally with left foot-leading, on the murkier fringes of the world of Spooks and officially-sanctioned intrusion and assassination. It’s brave but not brash: the physical and psychological violence (and there’s a lot of it) is shockingly, if not surprisingly, real.  This is not one for the faint-hearted, but there’s nothing gratuitous. Charlotte Alton is a sort of modern ”M” on the wrong side of the tracks and re-imagined for a more cynical 21^st century audience.  Elegant, wealthy, clever and driven, she lacks Bond’s licence to kill but doesn't let that bother her. She operates, largely vicariously through supreme mastery of technology, manipulating killers, players and victims alike, Subbuteo-style: the true play is almost always a distance away. One of Charlotte’s alter egos comes out of retirement to engineer one of her contacts into the prison in order to kill an a women who may not even be there, with a cover-story which is perhaps the most improbable element of the whole charabang, but all does not go swimmingly; Charlotte herself has reservations, and an unresolved attraction to her chosen human weapon, Simon Johanssen, who himself has much to prove and too much morality to prove it unquestioningly.  His undercover mission is impeded by the menacing Quinlan and his side-kick, the sub-human monster, Bryce, as well as multi-layered webs of deceptions, misjudgments and undisclosed connections which work their way with a dreadful fatalism towards not one but two showdowns, one of which has already happened.   This may not be the most credible premise, nor the most original, but it is sound and in Giltrow’s very capable hands, it is crafted into a relentless, absorbing, seat of the pants thriller. Charlotte is surrounded by a cast of characters, good and bad among them but it’s not always clear which is which. Questioning not just where the divide between good and evil lies but whether it even exists at all is one of the binding, and most rewarding, elements of the story: Giltrow constantly challenges the righteousness of motivation and isn’t afraid to let to allow the reader judgement. (The cast list is long and many of the players are lightly-drawn, so much so that it can be challenge to keep them all straight.) The Distance was Wimbledon Village’s Book Group’s choice for May 2015.  The consensus among group members was that it was an engrossing thriller at times scary and at times disruptive, but always an enjoyable read.  A cut above the average thriller, providing plenty of substance for discussion, many members thought the novel would work very well, perhaps even better, as a film. Certain unresolved elements in the story, especially around the relationships between characters, left the distinct impression that there will be a Charlotte Alton 2 (which the author has since confirmed), and the group would be keen to read the next one. I am most grateful to the author for providing a copy of her book for this review.  I am even more delighted that Helen signed it! One to treasure, I think. Helen Giltrow used to be a bookseller and has worked as a editor.  She has been shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award and the Daily Telegraph’s Novel in a Year competition. The Distance is her first novel. It was first published in the UK by Orion Books in May 2014 (and in paperback in February 2015).  It was published in the US by Doubleday in September 2014.  You can follow Helen on Twitter - @helengiltrow.

Tucked inside a rather nice copy of Cecilia Anne Jones’ Under the King’s Banner: Stories of the Soldiers of Christ in all Ages, c 1880, (Gardner, Dalton & Co: London, 5^th edition), I found this little, four-page tract entitled Little Angel, by Eva Travers.  It contains the story of six-year-old Angel whose poor, widowed mother tells Angel, on Christmas Day no less that there is no food left and that she and her five siblings must starve.  “Oh, dear children” cries Angel’s mother “pray with me to God to help us, for I do not know where to turn for help”.  So Little Angel, on her way to school (yes, school, on Christmas Day!) stops to pray in the peace of a church and appeals to God for help and food.  Upon reaching home at the end of the day, she finds the dinner table laden with bread and meat and puddings. Her mother explains to Angel that a lady had heard her praying and, moved by God, sent a Christmas feast.  “She was God’s Angel to us. Let us praise Him, my children.”  The tract ends with a general appeal to children to pray and, if they are not themselves hungry for food, they will be hungry “in soul” and should be "God’s little servants, giving aid to others”.  There's even a wee engraving of Little Angel, praying and crying, in church. Such moralistic, Christian tracts were ten-a-penny in the late 19^th century, usually preaching Victorian and Christian values in the most unsubtle ways.  Eva Travers, who also wrote hymns and a range of other tracts and Christian works, was a prolific author of such stories.  This particular tract is No. 13 (one is tempted to think ‘God help us!’ here too) of a series called Little Tracts for Little Readers, which could be ordered by booksellers from the publisher (in this case Morgan and Scott of 12, Paternoster Buildings in London) for 3 shillings and sixpence per thousand. The book in which I found the tract is of similar ilk – highly moralistic, evangelical tales of “Christian soldiers”, martyrs and saints (incidentally the publisher of the book, Gardner, Dalton & Co, were based in the same places – Paternoster Buildings – as the Tract’s publisher).  I rather pity the poor children to whom the book and tract were given to read but no doubt it was done with love and the best of intentions.

Do you know how a bookworm might eat a conjugated leaf? Or what a stippled edge is? Or What cocked, shaken or starting books are? These are the sort of terms which litter descriptions of old, second hand and collectible books in booksellers' catalogues and, of course, on on-line book-selling sites.  Potential customers may ask, often in a sheepish or apologetic manner, what these terms mean. There's no reason to be embarrassed at not knowing though- these are terms that have evolved through use, and sometimes misuse, over many years and in many different part of the world. It's a language that can take a lifetime to become comfortable with and few genuinely master it.  And yet, if you like to indulge in buying beautiful old books from auctions, booksellers' catalogues or on line, it's important to understand the descriptive terms used or you might end up disappointed, or paying way over the odds for something you didn't really want in the first place, or so confused and put off that you miss out on a genuine bargain or that deeply desired book. Most booksellers are steeped in such booklore and only too willing, indeed keen, to share their knowledge with others but it is a sad fact of modern secondhand and antiquarian bookselling that there also some, especially on-line, who only purport to professional standards and probably know less about the books they are selling than I do about particle physics.  Understanding a little behind the language of booksellers will help book buyers spot the fly-by-night sellers who too often think because they have no evidence of an earlier printing, the book in hand must be a first edition. (If you want to try a little test, follow the link below to search results on ABEbooks (one of the best bookselling sites by the way) for first editions of Frank Richards' Billy Bunter and the Blue Mauritius (chosen for no other reason than I happen to have a copy in front of me right now).  Richards' plummy adventure story for boys was published in its first edition by Charles Skilton Ltd in London in 1952, yet you will see among the results a number published by Hawk Books in 1992. Some of the sellers offering the Hawk Books edition give enough information in their detailed descriptions for the savvy buyer to spot that they are not first editions.  At the time of writing however, only 9 of the 13 books returned in the search results appear to be genuine firsts. Search for First Editions of Frank Richards' Billy Bunter and the Blue Mauritius on ABEbooks. Some of the terms we frequently use in our book descriptions here at BookAddiction appear in our Glossary of Book Description Terms which we've added to our blog today.

R Austin Freeman, Crime Novelist - Collectors' Notes and Bibliography Here at BookAddiction, we've updated our Book Collectors' notes to include a section on R Austin Freeman, doyen of early 20th century forensic crime fiction and acclaimed inventor of the inverted detective story.  Take a look  - all comments, additions, suggestions for improvement, clarifications etc very welcome. Read about R Austin Freeman and his most renowned detective hero, Dr John Thorndyke here or check out what collectible and vintage editions of R Austin Freeman's books are available right now from Wimbledon Rare and Collectible Books.

I don't often feature ebay sales on my blog, but this particular one, for a signed, first edition of Arnold Bennett's Lord Raingo, caught my eye this morning. In part, that's probably because I'm a huge admirer of Arnold Bennett's writing and because, quietly, I collect his books. If I had the pennies, this one would be winging it's way to my shelves very quickly. But I don't, so the best I can do is share it with a wider audience in the hopes that it may help this wonderful copy find a kind, loving and appreciative home. Arnold Enoch Bennett (1867-1931) was an English author, critic, playwright and essayist. Born in Hanley in Staffordshire, the Potteries and their industrialisation provided the backdrop to many of the novels for which Bennett is perhaps most famous - Anna of the Five Towns (1902), Old Wives' Tales (1908) and, my personal favourites, The Clayhanger trilogy of novels: Clayhanger (1910), Hilda Lessways (1911) and These Twain (1916). Critics might tell you that Bennett's works provide an important link between the English novel and contemporary European realism. And they do, but as a reader, it's Bennett's detailed, precise writing, his very human (but not always humane) treatment of this characters, the sympathy he draws out and the ways in which he reflects their contemporary concerns that draw me again and again to his novels. He creates real worlds and real people, often in minuscule detail. Bennett's novels are riots of misunderstanding and misreadings: it is a common theme that characters often fail to see the signals that indicate that superficially understandable beings are in fact more complicated and ambiguous than they seem. His later works, some set in London where he lived for many years, are sometimes overlooked in favour of "the potteries" novels. This, I think, is sad. Riceyman Steps (1923) and Lord Raingo (1926) in particular have all the style and precision of the Clayhanger Trilogy, but are altogether darker and grittier. In Riceyman Steps, Bennett revisits a character, The Miser, from his earlier fiction, reworking him so thoroughly as to completely undermine the tenets of the original work: it is Bennett's masterpiece of depicting unconscious desires as apparently rational behaviour, and implicates readers more fully in misreadings than any of his other works. Bennett, a keen sailor, discovered a chaotic second hand bookshop while on a sailing trip in Southampton where he bought a book on misers, reputedly for sixpence. This book provided the inspiration for Henry Earlforward - the miserly second hand bookseller who is the central character of Riceyman Steps - and his bookshop on the steps which lead from Kings Cross Road to Granville Square in London's Clerkenwell. Lord Raingo tells the fictionalised story of Bennett's friend, Lord Beaverbrook, during the first world war. Sam Raingo - ""Fifty−five. Tallishbut stoutish. Dressed like the country gentleman which he was not and never would be", as Bennett tells us- apparently has it all: wealth, a wife, a mistress and the good life. But his health is failing and he is bored. He desires to achieve and he is handed the opportunity to fulfill that ambition, as well as gaining a peerage, when the Government asks him to head up a propaganda department with the aim of keeping up civilian morale during the war. Bennett takes the reader deeply into Raingo's mind in describing the inevitable anxieties and attempted reconciliation of public and private emotions and stances. At the same time, a gripping story unfolds as would be expected from a semi-biographical work of his brilliant and controversial subject. Lord Raingo was first published in the UK by Cassell & Co in 1926 and by Doran in the same year in 1926. Copies are not hard to find, it is of course now available as a print on demand, and even first editions can be picked up for a few pounds very easily in second hand bookshops and on on-line bookselling sites such as ABEBooks. But this one is special because it's signed by Bennett himself. Incidentally, the Ebay auction listing describes the book on offer as a first edition: I think it would be more properly described as a 1st US edition, the true first being the Cassell edition of 1926. I should add that I know nothing, good or bad, of the bookseller offering this book, Cox and Budge Books. I am however quite impressed with their elegant and easy to use website, here, which I shall make a point of revisting.