The Willis Faber Book of Tennis and Rackets

First edition. 368pp, copiously illustrated in colour and black and white. In blue cloth-covered boards with gilt titles on spine. Large 4to. Boards very slightly rubbed at corners, a little rubbed and rounded at spine tips. Internally neat, clean, bright and tight. In its original, laminated dust jacket, lightly bumped on edges, moderately sunned over spine. Newspaper obituary of Julian Faber, the Chairman of Willis Faber (and Cornhill Insurance), loosely laid in. The complete story of two sports with long and rich histories, never before so well documented or so entertainingly told. Tennis and Rackets are the forerunners of the modern games of Lawn Tennis and Squash; the origins of tennis - now known as Royal Tennis, Real Tennis or Court Tennis - lie in the cloisters of medieval monasteries; those of Rackets in the 18th century debtors' prisons.