{"title":"Books","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom rare first editions to beloved vintage classics, every book in our collection has a story waiting to continue. Browse our carefully curated shelf and discover your next timeless treasure.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"folio-society-hours-in-a-library-leslie-stephen-3-volume-set","title":"Hours in a Library — Folio Society Edition | 1991 | 3 Volume Set | Fine","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHours in a Library — Folio Society Edition\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eSir Leslie Stephen | 3 Volume Set | Introduction by Jonathan Steinberg | Fine Condition\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eSir Leslie Stephen is one of those figures who shaped literary culture so profoundly that his influence is still felt today — yet somehow remains less celebrated than he deserves. Father of Virginia Woolf, founding editor of the Dictionary of National Biography and one of the Victorian era's finest critics, his essays in Hours in a Library remain as sharp and pleasurable to read now as they were when first published.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThis handsome 1991 Folio Society edition gathers his finest critical writings across three beautifully produced volumes. Stephen turns his considerable intelligence to Defoe, Sir Walter Scott, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, Wordsworth, Pope, Balzac and many more — with the kind of elegant, unhurried prose that reminds you what literary criticism looks like when it is done properly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe Folio Society edition is a pleasure to hold. Three volumes in blue buckram cloth bindings with gilt design to front covers and spines, numerous black and white illustrations throughout, and housed in a sturdy matching dark blue slipcase. Over 1,000 pages in total across the set — substantial enough to make an impression on any shelf.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Fine throughout. Pages clean and bright with no foxing, marks or inscriptions. Bindings tight and vibrant with minimal shelf wear. Slipcase solid with only light rubbing consistent with careful storage. A well preserved and attractive set.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout this edition:\u003c\/strong\u003e An ideal companion for anyone with a serious interest in Victorian literature, literary criticism or the history of English letters. Also a natural choice for Virginia Woolf collectors wishing to explore her father's considerable legacy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eExtra photographs available on request. Just get in touch and we will be happy to help.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003ePacked with stiff packing paper, card and a sturdy outer box for safe delivery anywhere in the world.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55456413680001,"sku":"26-03-006","price":32.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/hours-in-a-library-folio-society-edition-1991-3-volume-set-fine-9942834.jpg?v=1778402596"},{"product_id":"folio-society-puck-of-pooks-hill-rudyard-kipling-1995","title":"Puck of Pook's Hill — Folio Society Edition | 1995 | Rudyard Kipling | Fine","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePuck of Pook's Hill — Folio Society Edition\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eRudyard Kipling | Illustrated by H.R. Millar | 1995 First Printing | Fine Condition\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eOne of the most beloved works in English children's literature — and a book that speaks just as powerfully to adults.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eFirst published in 1906, Puck of Pook's Hill follows Dan and Una, two children in the Sussex countryside who accidentally summon Puck — the oldest creature in England — whilst acting out scenes from A Midsummer Night's Dream. What follows is a sequence of extraordinary encounters with figures drawn from the whole sweep of English history: a Roman centurion, a Saxon monk, a Norman knight, a Viking sea captain. Each one arrives with a story to tell, and Kipling listens to them all with the patience and imagination of a writer at the very height of his powers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThis 1995 Folio Society first printing is a handsome edition. The attractive orange and gold pictorial cloth binding with blocked illustration and gilt lettering is immediately appealing, H.R. Millar's original 1906 illustrations are reproduced faithfully throughout, and the whole thing sits in a sturdy matching slipcase. A compact, readable format that invites you to settle in and stay a while.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Fine throughout. Pages clean and bright with no foxing, marks or inscriptions. Binding tight and vibrant with minimal shelf wear. Slipcase solid with only light rubbing consistent with careful storage. A very well preserved first Folio Society printing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout this edition:\u003c\/strong\u003e The ideal companion to the Folio Society edition of Rewards and Fairies — the sequel in which Dan and Una return for further adventures with Puck. Both volumes are available from Novel Relics and make a beautiful pair on any shelf.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eExtra photographs available on request. Just get in touch and we will be happy to help.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003ePacked with stiff packing paper, card and a sturdy outer box for safe delivery anywhere in the world.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55456413712769,"sku":"26-03-001","price":35.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/puck-of-pooks-hill-folio-society-edition-1995-rudyard-kipling-fine-3530077.jpg?v=1778402603"},{"product_id":"folio-society-victorian-trilogy-asa-briggs-3-volume-set","title":"A Victorian Trilogy — Folio Society Edition | 1996 | 3 Volume Set | Fine","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA Victorian Trilogy — Folio Society Edition\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eAsa Briggs | Victorian People, Victorian Cities, Victorian Things | 3 Volume Set | Fine Condition\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eFew historians understood the Victorian age as thoroughly as Asa Briggs. Over the course of three landmark works — Victorian People, Victorian Cities and Victorian Things — he built what remains the most comprehensive and readable portrait of nineteenth century Britain ever written. Not dry academic history but vivid, absorbing social history that brings an extraordinary era back to life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThis 1996 Folio Society edition gathers all three volumes into one beautifully produced set. Victorian People examines the personalities and ideas that shaped an age. Victorian Cities explores the dramatic transformation of Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, London and beyond. Victorian Things turns its attention to the objects of everyday Victorian life — postage stamps, telephones, typewriters, spectacles, fashion, domestic furnishings — and finds in them a whole civilisation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe production is everything you would expect from the Folio Society at its best. Three volumes in striking burgundy cloth with elaborate gilt and multicolour decorative blocking, numerous colour and black and white plates throughout, and housed in a sturdy matching pictorial slipcase. A substantial and impressive set that looks magnificent on a shelf.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Fine throughout. Pages clean and bright with no foxing, marks or inscriptions. Bindings tight and vibrant with minimal shelf wear. Slipcase solid with only light rubbing consistent with careful storage. A very well preserved example of a complete first Folio Society edition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout this edition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Now out of print and increasingly difficult to find as a complete fine set with slipcase. An essential addition to any collection of Victorian history or British social history — and a genuinely handsome object in its own right.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eExtra photographs available on request. Just get in touch and we will be happy to help.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003ePacked with stiff packing paper, card and a sturdy outer box for safe delivery anywhere in the world.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55456413778305,"sku":"26-03-005","price":52.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/a-victorian-trilogy-folio-society-edition-1996-3-volume-set-fine-2895859.jpg?v=1778402605"},{"product_id":"folio-society-three-musketeers-limited-edition-signed-pisarev","title":"The Three Musketeers — Folio Society Edition | 2021 | Limited 716\/750 | Signed","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Three Musketeers — Folio Society Limited Edition\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eAlexandre Dumas | Limited to 750 copies worldwide | Signed by illustrator Roman Pisarev\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThis is a genuinely rare opportunity. Published in 2021, this Folio Society limited edition of The Three Musketeers is number 716 of just 750 copies produced worldwide — and it is every bit as special as that sounds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe book is presented in full burgundy goatskin leather with gold and black foil blocking, all edges gilt, and housed in its original maroon slipcase. It is the kind of volume you pick up once and immediately understand why people collect Folio Society editions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat makes this copy special:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eSigned and numbered by illustrator Roman Pisarev on the original etching and frontispiece — making each copy uniquely his own. The edition features 11 black and white line drawings throughout, plus the exclusive Pisarev etching. The translation is by William Barrow, with an introduction by George MacDonald Fraser.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Fine to near fine throughout. The interior is pristine, the leather binding remains vibrant and supple, and the slipcase shows only the lightest shelf wear consistent with careful storage. A beautifully preserved example of one of Folio's most sought after limited editions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout this edition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Now out of print and increasingly difficult to find, this is exactly the sort of book that quietly appreciates in value whilst looking magnificent on a shelf. Whether you are an Alexandre Dumas enthusiast, a Folio Society collector, or simply someone who appreciates genuinely beautiful books — this one is worth your attention.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eExtra photographs of the limitation page, etching, leather binding or slipcase are available on request. Just get in touch and we will be happy to help.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003ePacked with acid free tissue, corner protectors and a sturdy outer box for safe delivery anywhere in the world.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55456413843841,"sku":"26-03-009","price":600.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/the-three-musketeers-folio-society-edition-2021-limited-716750-signed-5644072.jpg?v=1778402605"},{"product_id":"folio-society-dam-busters-paul-brickhill-2015-sealed","title":"The Dam Busters — Folio Society Edition | 2015 | Sealed | Mint","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Dam Busters — Folio Society Edition\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003ePaul Brickhill | Introduction by Mary Stopes-Roe | In original publisher's seal\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eFew stories from the Second World War have endured quite like this one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003ePaul Brickhill's account of 617 Squadron's legendary raid on the Ruhr dams remains one of the most gripping pieces of wartime writing ever committed to paper. Brickhill — himself a veteran who was shot down and held as a prisoner of war — brings an authenticity and energy to the narrative that few historians could match. He was there. He knew these men. And it shows on every page.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThis 2015 Folio Society edition does the story full justice. The striking red and black pictorial binding with its bold aviation design is immediately arresting, and the volume is illustrated throughout with contemporary black and white photographs. The introduction is written by Mary Stopes-Roe — Barnes Wallis's own daughter — and brings a rare personal perspective to one of history's most audacious engineering achievements.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e This copy remains in its original publisher's seal — completely unread and untouched. The slipcase is perfect. A truly mint example of a much sought after Folio edition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout this edition:\u003c\/strong\u003e A natural companion to any collection of Second World War literature or aviation history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eExtra photographs available on request. Just get in touch and we will be happy to help.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003ePacked with stiff packing paper, card and a sturdy outer box for safe delivery anywhere in the world.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55456413647233,"sku":"26-03-008","price":65.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/the-dam-busters-folio-society-edition-2015-sealed-mint-4050803.jpg?v=1778402605"},{"product_id":"folio-society-rewards-and-fairies-rudyard-kipling-1999","title":"Rewards and Fairies — Folio Society Edition | 1999 | Fine","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRewards and Fairies — Folio Society Edition\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eRudyard Kipling | Illustrated by Charles E. Brock | 1999 Second Printing | Fine Condition\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe sequel to Puck of Pook's Hill — and in many ways the richer, more resonant book of the two.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eRewards and Fairies returns Dan and Una to their Sussex meadow and to Puck, who once again conjures figures from England's long past to tell their stories. Romans and Elizabethans, smugglers and physicians, craftsmen and queens — Kipling weaves history, folklore and imagination together with a lightness of touch that makes the stories feel both timeless and entirely of their place.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eAnd then there is the poem at the heart of it all. If— appears here in its original context, at the close of the tale Brother Square-Toes — and reading it where Kipling placed it, rather than as the isolated inspirational verse it later became, is a revelation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThis Folio Society edition is a handsome and fitting companion to Puck of Pook's Hill. The light blue decorative cloth binding with gilt lettering and pictorial elements is charming, Charles E. Brock's original 1910 illustrations are reproduced throughout, and the whole thing sits in a sturdy matching slipcase. A pleasure to read and a pleasure to own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Fine throughout. Pages clean and bright with no foxing, marks or inscriptions. Binding tight and vibrant with minimal shelf wear. Slipcase solid with only light rubbing consistent with careful storage. A very well preserved copy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout this edition:\u003c\/strong\u003e The ideal companion to the Folio Society edition of Puck of Pook's Hill — if you are collecting both, this completes the set beautifully.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eExtra photographs available on request. Just get in touch and we will be happy to help.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003ePacked with stiff packing paper, card and a sturdy outer box for safe delivery anywhere in the world.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55456413876609,"sku":"26-03-002","price":28.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/rewards-and-fairies-folio-society-edition-1999-fine-1834134.jpg?v=1778402597"},{"product_id":"folio-society-crime-stories-strand-geraldine-beare-1991","title":"Crime Stories from The Strand — Folio Society Edition | 1991 | Fine","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCrime Stories from The Strand — Folio Society Edition\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eSelected by Geraldine Beare | Introduction by H.R.F. Keating | Illustrated by David Eccles | First Printing 1991 | Fine Condition\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe Strand Magazine ran from 1891 to 1950 and in that time published some of the finest crime and mystery fiction ever written. This Folio Society anthology gathers twenty five of the very best — and what a lineup it is.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eArthur Conan Doyle. Agatha Christie. Dorothy L. Sayers. G.K. Chesterton. Margery Allingham. H.G. Wells. P.G. Wodehouse. Graham Greene. Edgar Wallace. Names that defined an era of fiction and whose stories remain as gripping today as they were when first published in those legendary pages.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eSelected and introduced with characteristic authority by Geraldine Beare — one of the foremost experts on Strand fiction — and with an introduction by H.R.F. Keating, this is a collection that rewards both the casual reader and the serious collector equally.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe Folio Society edition is beautifully produced. The striking blue cloth binding with red topstain, gilt lettering and atmospheric pictorial elements sits in a sturdy matching slipcase. David Eccles' black and white illustrations and decorations throughout capture the mood of the golden age of magazine crime fiction perfectly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Fine throughout. Pages clean and bright with no foxing, marks or inscriptions. Binding tight and vibrant with minimal shelf wear. Slipcase solid with only light rubbing consistent with careful storage. A very well preserved first printing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout this edition:\u003c\/strong\u003e The first Folio Society printing of 1991 — part of a celebrated three volume Strand series alongside the Short Stories and Adventure Stories volumes. If you are collecting the complete set, this is the one to start with.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eExtra photographs available on request. Just get in touch and we will be happy to help.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003ePacked with stiff packing paper, card and a sturdy outer box for safe delivery anywhere in the world.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55456413811073,"sku":"26-03-004","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/crime-stories-from-the-strand-folio-society-edition-1991-fine-2923551.jpg?v=1778402597"},{"product_id":"folio-society-short-stories-strand-geraldine-beare-1992","title":"Short Stories from The Strand — Folio Society Edition | 1992 | Fine","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eShort Stories from The Strand — Folio Society Edition\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eSelected by Geraldine Beare | Introduction by Frank Delaney | Illustrated by David Eccles | First Printing 1992 | Fine Condition\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe Strand Magazine gave the world some of the finest short fiction ever published. Between 1895 and 1948 its pages introduced readers to characters, voices and stories that have never been forgotten — and this Folio Society anthology gathers twenty five of the very best into one beautifully produced volume.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eArthur Conan Doyle. H.G. Wells. P.G. Wodehouse. Graham Greene. Max Pemberton. A lineup that speaks for itself. Selected with impeccable taste by Geraldine Beare and introduced by Frank Delaney, this is a collection that rewards both the casual browser and the dedicated reader of classic British short fiction equally.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe Folio Society edition is elegant and understated. Grey cloth binding with gilt panel and decorative elements, David Eccles' atmospheric black and white illustrations and decorations throughout, and the whole thing housed in a sturdy matching slipcase. 318 pages of some of the finest magazine fiction the twentieth century produced.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Fine throughout. Pages clean and bright with no foxing, marks or inscriptions. Binding tight and vibrant with minimal shelf wear. Slipcase solid with only light rubbing consistent with careful storage. A very well preserved first printing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout this edition:\u003c\/strong\u003e The companion volume to Crime Stories from The Strand and Adventure Stories from The Strand — part of a celebrated Folio Society trilogy dedicated to the legendary magazine. If you are collecting all three this is an essential addition to your shelf.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eExtra photographs available on request. Just get in touch and we will be happy to help.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003ePacked with stiff packing paper, card and a sturdy outer box for safe delivery anywhere in the world.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55456413745537,"sku":"26-03-003","price":35.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/short-stories-from-the-strand-folio-society-edition-1992-fine-7703516.jpg?v=1781147112"},{"product_id":"folio-society-roald-dahl-complete-tales-unexpected-smithson","title":"Complete Tales of the Unexpected — Folio Society Edition | 2002 | Fine","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRoald Dahl — Complete Tales of the Unexpected — Folio Society Edition\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eIllustrated by Helen Smithson | 2002 Second Printing | Fine Condition\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eNearly fifty of Roald Dahl's finest adult stories gathered into one magnificent volume — and presented by the Folio Society in a edition that does full justice to the genius of the man.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThis is Dahl at his most brilliantly unsettling. Drawing from Kiss Kiss, Someone Like You, Switch Bitch, Over to You and eight additional tales, the collection showcases everything that made him one of the most distinctive voices in twentieth century fiction: the dark wit, the razor sharp twist, the deeply uncomfortable feeling that you simply cannot stop reading. Lamb to the Slaughter. The Landlady. Poison. The Way Up to Heaven. Stories that burrow under the skin and refuse to leave.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe Folio Society edition is a handsome thing. The distinctive pale yellow snakeskin patterned cloth binding with red accents is immediately recognisable and the volume runs to a generous 768 pages — illustrated throughout with atmospheric plates and line drawings by Helen Smithson. It sits in a sturdy matching slipcase and has a pleasing heft to it that paperback collections simply cannot match.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Fine throughout. Pages clean and bright with no foxing, marks or inscriptions. Binding tight and vibrant with minimal shelf wear. Slipcase solid with only light rubbing consistent with careful storage. A very well preserved example.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout this edition:\u003c\/strong\u003e The 2002 second printing is increasingly sought after by collectors — particularly in this condition. If you enjoy Dahl's adult fiction or are building a Folio Society collection, this is a volume you will not want to miss.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eExtra photographs available on request. Just get in touch and we will be happy to help.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003ePacked with stiff packing paper, card and a sturdy outer box for safe delivery anywhere in the world.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55456413909377,"sku":"26-03-007","price":50.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/complete-tales-of-the-unexpected-folio-society-edition-2002-fine-2627020.jpg?v=1778402602"},{"product_id":"folio-society-blue-fairy-book-andrew-lang-sealed","title":"The Blue Fairy Book — Folio Society Edition | 1999 | Sealed | Mint","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Blue Fairy Book — Folio Society Edition\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eAndrew Lang | Illustrated by Charles van Sandwyk | In original publisher's seal\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThere are Folio Society editions and then there are Folio Society editions. This is one of the latter.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe Blue Fairy Book — Andrew Lang's timeless gathering of fairy tales from across Europe — is presented here in what is arguably one of the most beautiful editions the Folio Society has ever produced. Charles van Sandwyk's illustrations are quite simply extraordinary: 16 full page colour plates of breathtaking detail, accompanied by dozens of intricate line drawings and decorations woven throughout the text.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe binding is striking — deep blue pictorial cloth with elaborate gilt and colour blocking designed by van Sandwyk himself — and the volume sits in a sturdy matching slipcase that shows it off perfectly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e This copy remains in its original publisher's seal — completely unread and untouched since it left the press. The slipcase is flawless. The pages have never been turned. For a collector this is about as good as it gets.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout this edition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Now out of print and increasingly hard to find in any condition — let alone sealed. Lang's Fairy Books have delighted readers since 1889 and this Folio Society edition does them full justice. Whether you are a fairy tale enthusiast, a van Sandwyk admirer or a Folio Society collector, this is a genuinely special find.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eExtra photographs of the publisher's seal, slipcase or binding are available on request. Just get in touch and we will be happy to help.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003ePacked with stiff packing paper, card and a sturdy outer box for safe delivery anywhere in the world.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55456413942145,"sku":"26-03-010","price":195.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/the-blue-fairy-book-folio-society-edition-1999-sealed-mint-2736330.jpg?v=1781147112"},{"product_id":"folio-society-great-plague-london-bell-2001-fine","title":"The Great Plague in London — Folio Society Edition | 2001 (Fourth Printing 2004) | Edited by Belinda Hollyer | Fine in Slipcase","description":"\u003cp dir=\"auto\"\u003eThis Folio Society edition of Walter George Bell's enduring classic is in superb, near-as-new condition — a perfect copy that any collector would be delighted to add to the shelf. The striking black cloth binding, with Francis Mosley's dramatic blocked design of a plague doctor amid the grim streets of 1665 London, remains vivid and untouched, the gilt spine lettering (\"The Great Plague X\" with its bold red cross) crisp as the day it left Edinburgh.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"auto\"\u003eWalter George Bell's The Great Plague in London stands as one of the finest modern accounts of the 1665 outbreak, meticulously drawn from diaries, parish registers, and bills of mortality to capture the human reality behind the statistics. First published in 1924 and revised in 1951, this abridged Folio version — skilfully edited and introduced by Belinda Hollyer — distils Bell's scholarship into an engrossing, accessible narrative. It's a vivid portrait of a city in crisis: the fear, the heroism, the strange remedies, and the slow return to life. For lovers of Restoration history, social chronicles, or tales of resilience in dark times, this is essential and strangely timeless reading.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"auto\"\u003ePhysically, it's a Folio gem: 256 pages set in elegant Minion type on Caxton Wove paper, printed by St Edmundsbury Press and bound by Hunter \u0026amp; Foulis. It features atmospheric endpapers with John Dunstall's period engravings of plague scenes, a folding map drawn after Bell's original, and a selection of evocative illustrations. The matching black slipcase complements the binding perfectly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"auto\"\u003eCondition is fine throughout. The text block is immaculate — clean, bright pages with no foxing, inscriptions, marks, or creases; binding tight and square as new. Boards pristine with sharp corners and no shelf wear. The slipcase is equally excellent: sturdy, unfaded, with only the lightest possible handling traces (scarcely noticeable). A truly outstanding example that looks and feels fresh from the publisher.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"auto\"\u003eAbout this edition: The 2001 Folio Society printing (this is the fourth impression of 2004) is prized for Mosley's powerful cover art and its compact, high-quality production. While first printings command a slight premium, later impressions in this condition are increasingly sought after by completists and those who value pristine preservation. It stands alone beautifully, though it companions well with other Folio volumes on the era, such as Pepys or accounts of the Great Fire.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"auto\"\u003eExtra photographs available on request. Just get in touch and we will be happy to help.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"auto\"\u003ePacked with stiff packing paper, card and a sturdy outer box for safe delivery anywhere in the world.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55459996500353,"sku":"26-03-011","price":38.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/the-great-plague-in-london-folio-society-edition-2001-fourth-printing-2004-edited-by-belinda-hollyer-fine-in-slipcase-5143333.jpg?v=1778402617"},{"product_id":"alice-in-wonderland-tarrant-24-plates-ward-lock-1929","title":"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland — Illustrated by Margaret W. Tarrant | Ward, Lock \u0026 Co. | c.1929 | 24 Colour Plates","description":"\u003cp dir=\"auto\"\u003eA proper childhood treasure — this charming early 20th-century edition of Lewis Carroll’s classic brings Margaret W. Tarrant’s whimsical, dreamlike illustrations to life in full colour. The cover captures the Mad Hatter’s tea party in all its glorious chaos: the Hatter gesturing wildly, the March Hare with his floral wreath, the sleepy Dormouse, and a wide-eyed Alice at the table — exactly the sort of scene that has delighted generations of readers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"auto\"\u003ePublished by Ward, Lock \u0026amp; Co. in their popular Sunshine Series around 1929, this edition features 24 beautiful colour plates by Tarrant (one of the most beloved children’s illustrators of the era), plus the full text of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The pictorial boards and warm, storybook feel made these volumes favourites for family bookshelves and Christmas stockings alike — a perfect blend of Carroll’s nonsense and Tarrant’s gentle, fairy-tale magic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"auto\"\u003ePhysically it’s a compact delight: octavo size with the iconic colour-illustrated front board, green cloth spine, and all 24 plates present and bright.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"auto\"\u003eCondition is good with honest age. The cover shows expected shelf wear — rubbed edges, bumped corners, light scuffing and some surface soiling — but remains bright and intact. Binding is firm with no loose pages. Inside, the title page and plates are clean and fresh; there is some foxing and light staining to the endpapers and a couple of blank leaves (typical for books of this age), plus old pencil notations (“13\/6” and “15”) from a previous owner. No major tears, inscriptions, or missing plates — a perfectly readable and displayable copy that still feels special.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"auto\"\u003eAbout this edition: The 1929 Sunshine Series Tarrant Alice (with its reduced but still generous 24 plates) is a favourite among collectors of illustrated Carroll and early 20th-century children’s books. These editions were designed to be affordable yet beautiful, and complete examples with all plates intact are increasingly sought after. This one sits happily alongside other vintage storybooks or curious finds — a lovely reminder of cosy bedtime reading from a gentler age. Personally sourced and honestly described by our small team in North Yorkshire.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"auto\"\u003eExtra photographs available on request. Just get in touch and we will be happy to help.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ward, Lock \u0026 Co.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55460189798785,"sku":"26-03-014","price":32.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/alices-adventures-in-wonderland-illustrated-by-margaret-w-tarrant-ward-lock-co-c1929-24-colour-plates-3635204.jpg?v=1778402617"},{"product_id":"folio-society-princes-in-the-tower-alison-weir-1999","title":"The Princes in the Tower — Folio Society Edition | 1999 | Alison Weir | Fine | Slipcase","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eOne of English history's most enduring murder mysteries — and one of the Folio Society's most dramatically designed volumes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe Princes in the Tower refers to the apparent murder in the 1480s of the deposed King Edward V and his younger brother Richard, Duke of York — children, and the only surviving sons of King Edward IV. Their fate has been among history's great enigmas for five centuries. \u003cspan class=\"inline-flex\" data-state=\"closed\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eAlison Weir, one of Britain's most respected popular historians, brings the full weight of contemporary evidence and modern scholarship to bear on the question that has never quite been answered: did Richard III really do it — and if not, who did?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThis Folio Society edition, published in London in 1999, features illustrated black boards with gilt lettering and a striking gilt and red graphic, a foreword by Ruth Rendell, Lancaster and York genealogical trees on the endpapers, and 22 colour plates on six unpaged leaves. \u003cspan class=\"inline-flex\" data-state=\"closed\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e The cover illustration by Francis Mosley — a stark, graphic tower arch in black, white and red — is one of the Folio Society's more memorable designs of the period, striking and immediately recognisable on any shelf. The spine lettering is in Mosley's characteristic medieval-influenced hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Fine throughout. The book is entirely free from marks, inscriptions or wear of any kind — an unread copy in every respect. The boards are crisp, the gilt lettering bright and the binding firm. The black companion slipcase is in like condition\u003cspan class=\"inline-flex\" data-state=\"closed\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e — no shelf wear, no marking, no fading. A genuinely fine example of a copy that has been very carefully kept.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout this edition:\u003c\/strong\u003e This is the first Folio Society edition of Weir's text, which was originally published by The Bodley Head in 1992. Described in the trade as \"first thus\" — the first appearance of this text in this particular and very handsome form. A fine copy in a fine slipcase is increasingly the standard collectors expect, and this one delivers on both counts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eExtra photographs available on request. Just get in touch and we will be happy to help.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003ePacked with stiff packing paper, card and a sturdy outer box for safe delivery anywhere in the world.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55481435324801,"sku":"26-03-015","price":32.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/the-princes-in-the-tower-folio-society-edition-1999-alison-weir-fine-slipcase-9993245.jpg?v=1778402600"},{"product_id":"folio-society-forsyte-saga-galsworthy-1984-three-volume-set","title":"The Forsyte Saga — Folio Society Edition | 1984 | John Galsworthy | 3 Volume Set | Fine | Slipcase","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eOne of the great English novels of the twentieth century — and one that has never really been out of fashion.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eJohn Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga charts the rise, rivalries and slow unravelling of a wealthy Victorian family across three generations — a dynasty united by property, divided by passion and perpetually at war with the world's inconvenient tendency to change around them. \u003cem\u003eThe Man of Property\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eIn Chancery\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eTo Let\u003c\/em\u003e together form a complete and deeply satisfying portrait of English bourgeois life from the 1880s through to the 1920s — comic, melancholy, sharply observed and entirely human. Galsworthy was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932, and the Saga remains the centrepiece of his achievement.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThis is the Folio Society's handsome 1984 edition — three volumes bound in terracotta cloth spines with gilt titles and repeated tulip vignette decoration, over decorative patterned paper boards, with black and white illustrations throughout. The books are housed together in the distinctive blue and cream patterned slipcase. Each volume sits cleanly in the hand and looks well on the shelf — this is the kind of set that improves a room simply by being in it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Fine throughout. All three volumes are clean, unworn and free from marks or inscriptions. The bindings are firm, the gilt bright and the paper fresh. The slipcase is in near fine condition with one very small mark — noted honestly and not visible in photographs. A set that has been exceptionally well kept.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout this edition:\u003c\/strong\u003e The Forsyte Saga has been in the Folio Society catalogue repeatedly and with good reason — it is exactly the kind of sustained, serious English literary fiction the Society was created to celebrate. This 1984 set is among the more sought-after of the Folio Galsworthy editions and makes a distinguished gift for any reader who takes their shelves as seriously as their reading.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eExtra photographs available on request. Just get in touch and we will be happy to help.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003ePacked with stiff packing paper, card and a sturdy outer box for safe delivery anywhere in the world.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55481468354945,"sku":"26-03-016","price":38.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/the-forsyte-saga-folio-society-edition-1984-john-galsworthy-3-volume-set-fine-slipcase-6668862.jpg?v=1781147125"},{"product_id":"lionel-edwards-hunting-verse-trio-gresley-library-1925-1929","title":"Three Lionel Edwards Illustrated Sporting Verse Books | Roger Gresley's Hunting Library | 1925 to 1929 | Gresley Family Provenance | Good Condition","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThree books, three crossed-out names, one act of love in June 1947.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThis is a set of three beautifully illustrated sporting verse books, all published by Constable and Company and all illustrated with eight tipped-in colour plates by Lionel Edwards — one of the finest painters of the horse and the English hunting landscape that this country has ever produced. They were collected by Roger Gresley across the late 1920s, given to him year by year, some by his mother at Christmas. And then in June 1947, Roger gathered every one of them, struck his own name through in each, and gave them to Timothy — with love, signed simply \"Bone.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe three volumes are as follows.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eScattered Scarlet\u003c\/em\u003e by Will H. Ogilvie, illustrated by Lionel Edwards. London: Constable and Company, 4th impression, 1925. A collection of hunting verse in the original red cloth with gilt facsimile signature of Ogilvie to the front board. Eight colour plates by Edwards, all present and bright. The front endpaper carries three distinct layers of inscription: \"Roger Gresley 1926\" struck through, beneath it \"For Roger \/ from Mother \/ Xmas 1926 \/ with my love\" also struck through, and beneath that in pencil \"Timothy \/ with love \/ Bone \/ June 1947.\" The frontispiece plate has come away from the binding — noted honestly and consistent with the age of the volume.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Handful of Leather\u003c\/em\u003e by Will H. Ogilvie, illustrated by Lionel Edwards. London: Constable and Company, first edition, 1928. Forty horse-themed poems in the original cloth with eight vivid tipped-in colour plates by Edwards, all present and bright. The front endpaper reads \"Roger Gresley \/ Xmas 1928\" struck through, then \"Timothy \/ with love \/ Bone \/ June 1947.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eSomewhere in England and Other Hunting Verses\u003c\/em\u003e by Captain Edric G. Roberts, illustrated by Lionel Edwards. London: Constable and Company, first edition, 1929. Hunting verse in the original royal blue cloth with gilt lettering. Eight colour plates by Edwards, all present and bright. The front endpaper reads \"Roger Gresley \/ 1930\" struck through, then \"Timothy \/ with love \/ Bone \/ June 1947.\" Some foxing to the endpapers as is typical of this period.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eNone of the three volumes carries a dust jacket, which is the norm for surviving copies of these editions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eLionel Edwards (1878 to 1966) was the pre-eminent British painter of hunting and equestrian subjects of his generation. The colour plates throughout these three volumes — riders taking hedges, hounds in full cry, the muted palette of an English November morning — are characteristic of his finest work and remain actively collected in their own right.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eRoger Gresley was a member of the ancient Gresley family of Derbyshire and Staffordshire, one of the oldest Norman families in England, descended from a follower of William the Conqueror and holders of their Derbyshire seat for nine centuries. He built this small hunting library as a young man, book by book through the late 1920s. Then in a single moment in June 1947 — striking through his name in each volume before passing it on — he gave the entire collection to Timothy, signing himself with the family nickname \"Bone.\" It is not known what occasion June 1947 marked. It may have been a birthday, a coming of age, or simply a father choosing the right moment. Whatever the reason, the gesture was deliberate, complete and entirely legible across three endpapers a lifetime later.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Good throughout. The colour plates in all three volumes are present and bright — the most important consideration with Edwards illustrated books. \u003cem\u003eScattered Scarlet\u003c\/em\u003e — red cloth boards with some fading and marks, frontispiece plate detached from binding, text and remaining plates clean. \u003cem\u003eA Handful of Leather\u003c\/em\u003e — cloth boards faded and marked, text and plates clean and bright. \u003cem\u003eSomewhere in England\u003c\/em\u003e — royal blue cloth boards with some surface marks, foxing to endpapers, text and plates clean. All three are honest, genuine survivors of a well-used and well-loved sporting library.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eExtra photographs available on request. Just get in touch and we will be happy to help.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Constable and Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55495515898241,"sku":"26-04-001","price":135.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/three-lionel-edwards-illustrated-sporting-verse-books-roger-gresleys-hunting-library-1925-to-1929-gresley-family-provenance-good-condition-2571718.jpg?v=1778402627"},{"product_id":"nests-eggs-shown-to-children-blaikie-jack-1913","title":"Nests and Eggs Shown to the Children — A.H. Blaikie | T.C. \u0026 E.C. Jack | 48 Colour Plates | Inscribed 1913 | Good Condition","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eA charming Edwardian nature book for children — and one that has clearly been loved.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eNests and Eggs Shown to the Children\u003c\/em\u003e is the seventh volume in the celebrated Shown to the Children series, edited by Louey Chisholm and published by T.C. \u0026amp; E.C. Jack of London and Edinburgh. Illustrated by A.H. Blaikie with text by J.A. Henderson, it contains 48 full-page colour plates depicting birds' nests and eggs in their natural settings — delicate, precise watercolour studies that remain genuinely beautiful over a century after they were painted. The series was one of the most popular children's natural history imprints of the Edwardian era, designed to introduce young readers to the natural world with warmth, simplicity and very good illustration.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThis copy carries a lovely ownership inscription to the front endpaper: \u003cem\u003e\"Nigel \/ from Mother \/ June 25. 1913.\"\u003c\/em\u003e A mother giving her son a nature book in the summer of 1913 — a small, ordinary act of love recorded in ink and surviving intact for over 110 years. The inscription also helps date this copy to the early years of the series, making it one of the earlier printings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Good, consistent with age and honest use. The binding is firm and entirely sound. The spine shows light scuffing to the head and tail consistent with regular shelf use. The endpapers show toning and foxing as expected on a book of this age and paper stock. The 48 colour plates are present and clean throughout — the illustrations themselves have held up beautifully, which is where it matters most.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout this edition:\u003c\/strong\u003e The Shown to the Children series was produced without dates on the title page — the inscription of June 25th 1913 in this copy provides unusually precise dating, placing it firmly in the early years of the series and making it a more historically specific object than most surviving copies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [\u0026amp;_\u0026gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eExtra photographs available on request. Just get in touch and we will be happy to help.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"T. C. \u0026 E. C. Jack","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55495546995073,"sku":"26-04-002","price":22.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/nests-and-eggs-shown-to-the-children-ah-blaikie-tc-ec-jack-48-colour-plates-inscribed-1913-good-condition-4828702.jpg?v=1781147122"},{"product_id":"history-ireland-dalton-gresham-complete-six-volume-set","title":"History of Ireland From the Earliest Times to the Present Day — Rev. E.A. D'Alton | Complete Six Volume Set | Gresham Publishing | Celtic Design Bindings | Good Condition","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eSix handsome volumes covering the full sweep of Irish history — and a set that looks as well on the shelf as it reads in the hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eHistory of Ireland from the Earliest Times to the Present Day\u003c\/em\u003e by the Reverend E.A. D'Alton LL.D., M.R.I.A. is one of the most comprehensive popular histories of Ireland produced in the early twentieth century, covering the story of the island from its earliest recorded history through to 1908. Published by the Gresham Publishing Company of Dublin and Belfast, the six half-volumes trace Irish history chronologically — Volume I from the earliest times to 1210, through to Volume VI covering 1879 to 1908 — forming a complete and coherent narrative of over a thousand years of Irish life, politics, culture and conflict.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe set is illustrated throughout with colour frontispieces, black and white plates, portraits and maps, providing a rich visual accompaniment to D'Alton's detailed and scholarly text. D'Alton brought to this project both the learning of an academic historian and the accessibility of a writer who understood that Irish history deserved to be read rather than merely consulted.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe bindings are among the most attractive of any historical set of this period. Each volume is bound in the publisher's original sage green cloth with an elaborate Celtic knotwork design blocked in gilt to both the spine and the front boards — a design that reflects the Celtic Revival aesthetic of the early twentieth century and sits beautifully as a uniform set on any shelf. The gilt lettering and decoration across all six spines remains bright and consistent.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Good throughout, consistent with age. The sage green cloth is uniform across all six volumes with light shelf wear to the extremities. The gilt Celtic decoration to the spines and boards is bright and clear throughout. Foxing is present to the page edges across the set as is typical of this paper stock and period — the text and illustrations remain clean and entirely legible. The bindings are firm throughout. No inscriptions or ownership marks.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout this set:\u003c\/strong\u003e The Gresham Publishing Company produced this edition in several formats between 1903 and 1925. A complete matched set of all six volumes in the original uniform Celtic binding is considerably more appealing than individual volumes and makes a distinguished addition to any library with an interest in Irish history, Celtic design or early twentieth century illustrated publishing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eExtra photographs available on request. Just get in touch and we will be happy to help.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gresham Publishing Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55495548731777,"sku":"26-04-003","price":65.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/history-of-ireland-from-the-earliest-times-to-the-present-day-rev-ea-dalton-complete-six-volume-set-gresham-publishing-celtic-design-bindings-good-condition-6406100.jpg?v=1781147129"},{"product_id":"birds-britain-their-eggs-bonhote-ac-black-1930","title":"Birds of Britain and Their Eggs — J. Lewis Bonhote | A. \u0026 C. Black | 82 Colour Plates | Art Nouveau Binding | 1930 Reprint | Good Condition","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eOne of the most beautifully bound natural history books of the Edwardian era — and a book whose cover stops you in your tracks before you even open it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eBirds of Britain and Their Eggs\u003c\/em\u003e by J. Lewis Bonhote MA, FLS, FZS, Member of the British Ornithologists' Union was first published by A. \u0026amp; C. Black in November 1907 and remained in print through multiple editions and reprintings, a testament to its quality and appeal. This copy is the 1930 reprint of the expanded third edition of 1927, which added the egg plate illustrations to bring the total colour illustrations to eighty-two full-page plates throughout the volume. Bonhote was a zoologist, ornithologist and member of the British Ornithologists' Union whose text combines scientific precision with genuine enthusiasm for his subject — covering the characteristics, habits, song and eggs of every bird resident in and visiting the British Isles.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe illustrations were selected by H.E. Dresser, himself a distinguished ornithologist, from his own monumental \u003cem\u003eBirds of Europe\u003c\/em\u003e. They are among the finest colour bird illustrations of the period — precise, vivid and beautifully printed. The Missel Thrush plate alone, with its adult and juvenile birds perched in characteristic alertness, is worth the price of admission.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe binding is one of A. \u0026amp; C. Black's most extraordinary cover designs of the period — a full pictorial Art Nouveau composition covering every inch of the cream cloth, with interlocking birds, spreading wings, flowing feathers and organic forms in black, framing the title in a central cartouche. It is the kind of cover that collectors and browsers reach for immediately, and it photographs magnificently.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Good, consistent with its age. The pictorial cloth binding is present and well preserved with the Art Nouveau design clearly legible throughout. General soiling and light shelf wear to the boards consistent with age and use. The spine retains its gilt lettering bright and clear. All 82 colour plates are present and clean throughout — no losses or damage to the illustrations. No inscriptions or ownership marks. The binding is firm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout this edition:\u003c\/strong\u003e The 1927 third edition with the expanded egg plates is the most complete version of Bonhote's text, and the 1930 reprint is the final impression of that edition. A copy in good condition with all plates present and that extraordinary Art Nouveau binding intact is a genuinely pleasing object for any collector of illustrated natural history, British ornithology or Edwardian decorative arts publishing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eExtra photographs available on request. Just get in touch and we will be happy to help.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe pack every item ourselves, by hand, with stiff card, packing paper and a robust outer box sized to the piece. Nothing rattles, nothing shifts and nothing arrives disappointed. We've shipped to collectors across the world and we take the packing as seriously as the sourcing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"A. \u0026 C. Black","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55495563280769,"sku":"26-04-004","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/birds-of-britain-and-their-eggs-j-lewis-bonhote-a-c-black-82-colour-plates-art-nouveau-binding-1930-reprint-good-condition-5676211.jpg?v=1778402612"},{"product_id":"voltaire-letters-concerning-english-nation-london-1760","title":"Letters Concerning the English Nation — Voltaire | London 1760 | New Edition | 18th Century Enlightenment Classic | Francis Williams Inscriptions | Fair Condition","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eOne of the most important books of the European Enlightenment — in an original eighteenth century binding, with the marks of its long life honestly recorded.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eLetters Concerning the English Nation\u003c\/em\u003e by Mr. De Voltaire is one of the defining works of the Enlightenment. Written during Voltaire's exile in England between 1726 and 1729, it was first published in English in 1733 — one year before the French edition — and caused an immediate sensation. In its praise of English tolerance, freedom of thought, scientific inquiry and parliamentary government it implied, with brilliant irony, everything that was wrong with the French system of church and state. The French edition was condemned and publicly burned by the hangman in 1734. Voltaire fled. The book remained one of the most widely read and influential works of the century, and it contains, among much else, the first published account of Newton's falling apple and the law of gravitation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThis is the New Edition of 1760, printed in London for L. Davis and C. Reymers, against Grays-Inn, Holborn; R. Baldwin, in Paternoster Row; and S. Crowder and Co. at London Bridge — a distinguished consortium of mid-eighteenth century London publishers. It is 265 years old.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe book carries two distinct ownership inscriptions from the early nineteenth century. The front endpaper bears the name \u003cem\u003eFrancis Williams\u003c\/em\u003e written twice — once in a flowing copperplate hand in brown ink reading \"Frances Williams \/ His Book 1826\" and once in bolder blue ink reading \"Francis Williams \/ 1826.\" A further inscription appears vertically on a later page: \"Frances Williams 1835\" — the same owner, nine years on. The front pastedown carries handwritten period calculations and measurements — likely a previous owner using the blank pages as a convenient notepad, a thoroughly Georgian habit. The word \"Thornton — Hammon X\" appears among the notes, a tantalising fragment of a lost domestic record.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Fair, honestly described. The original full calf binding is present with the gilt spine decoration and red morocco label intact, showing significant wear, cracking and age-related deterioration consistent with a 265-year-old book. The front board has become detached from the binding and the binding itself is loose — entirely expected on a volume of this antiquity and reflected in the price. The text throughout is entirely readable and the pages are complete. Offered honestly as a reading and display copy rather than a fine condition collector's piece — a genuinely ancient book with two centuries of honest life behind it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout this edition:\u003c\/strong\u003e The 1760 London edition follows the tradition of the 1733 first English edition and predates the revised 1778 edition. At 265 years old, this is a copy of one of Western civilisation's most important books that has been in continuous existence since the reign of King George II. Francis Williams owned it in 1826 — it had already been in existence for 66 years by then.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eExtra photographs available on request. Just get in touch and we will be happy to help.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Novel Relics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55495584743809,"sku":"26-04-005","price":85.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/letters-concerning-the-english-nation-voltaire-london-1760-new-edition-18th-century-enlightenment-classic-francis-williams-inscriptions-fair-condition-7530863.jpg?v=1778402622"},{"product_id":"ralph-rashleigh-james-tucker-folio-society-1977-first-edition","title":"Ralph Rashleigh — The Folio Society | James Tucker | 1977 | First Edition | Drawings by Nigel Lambourne | Fine in Slipcase","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eA fine first edition of the Folio Society's 1977 publication of \u003cem\u003eRalph Rashleigh\u003c\/em\u003e by James Tucker — one of the most remarkable and singular works in Australian literary history, and a production of considerable distinction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eWritten in the 1840s under the pseudonym Giacomo di Rosenberg, Tucker's semi-autobiographical account of convict life in colonial Australia was published in heavily edited form in 1929, and not issued in its complete and properly attributed form until 1952. The Folio Society edition, introduced and edited by the scholar Colin Roderick — who first identified Tucker as the true author — remains the finest and most collectible presentation of the text.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eBound in sage-green pictorial cloth, the boards printed with atmospheric Australian bush scenes in sepia, with gilt-lettered title and author name to spine and the Folio Society's gilt device to the lower board. Illustrated throughout with a frontispiece and fifteen full-page drawings by Nigel Lambourne, whose vigorous line work captures the harshness and drama of Tucker's narrative with considerable power. Endpaper maps complete the production. 341 pp.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eHoused in the original Folio Society navy card slipcase, clean and firm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThis copy is in fine, first edition condition throughout — cloth bright and unmarked, pages clean and fresh, binding tight and square, slipcase sound. An excellent example of a title that rarely appears in this state.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eA compelling piece for collectors of Australian history and literature, colonial history, or fine Folio Society editions of the 1970s.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55591828128129,"sku":"26-04-012","price":35.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/ralph-rashleigh-the-folio-society-james-tucker-1977-first-edition-drawings-by-nigel-lambourne-fine-in-slipcase-6624237.jpg?v=1778402617"},{"product_id":"john-betjeman-selected-poems-folio-society-2004-first-impression","title":"Selected Poems — The Folio Society | John Betjeman | 2004 | First Impression | Drawings by Peter Bailey | Fine in Slipcase","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eA fine first impression of the Folio Society's celebrated 2004 edition of \u003cem\u003eSelected Poems\u003c\/em\u003e by Sir John Betjeman — Britain's best-loved Poet Laureate, and one of the great originals of twentieth-century English verse.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eEdited and introduced by Alan Powers, this selection draws from across Betjeman's career, from the early wit and ebullience of \u003cem\u003eMount Zion\u003c\/em\u003e (1932) through to the elegiac late poems of \u003cem\u003eA Nip in the Air\u003c\/em\u003e (1974), presenting the full range of a poet whose combination of comic genius, technical brilliance, and profound melancholy made him a national institution. The introduction offers a perceptive and affectionate account of Betjeman's place in English literature and culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eBound in cloth printed with a cheerful, characteristically English design by Peter Bailey — vignettes of church towers and cyclists set against a cream and taupe patterned ground — with the author's name and title in bold display lettering. Illustrated throughout with Bailey's drawings. Typeset in Walbaum and printed on Blackfriars Wove Paper by Cambridge University Press. 222 pp.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eHoused in the original maroon card slipcase.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThis copy is in fine, first impression condition throughout — cloth bright and fresh, pages clean and unmarked, binding tight, slipcase sound and clean. An excellent example of one of Folio's most charming poetry productions of the 2000s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eA delightful gift or addition to any collection of English poetry or fine Folio Society editions.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55591867744641,"sku":"26-04-013","price":40.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/selected-poems-the-folio-society-john-betjeman-2004-first-impression-drawings-by-peter-bailey-fine-in-slipcase-4519956.jpg?v=1781147125"},{"product_id":"saki-short-stories-folio-society-1976-first-impression-osbert-lancaster","title":"Short Stories — The Folio Society | Saki (H.H. Munro) | 1976 | First Impression | Drawings by Sir Osbert Lancaster | in Slipcase","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eA charming first impression of the Folio Society's 1976 edition of \u003cem\u003eShort Stories\u003c\/em\u003e by Saki — one of the most perfectly matched pairings of author and illustrator in the Society's catalogue.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eHector Hugh Munro, who wrote as Saki, was the supreme satirist of Edwardian England — wickedly funny, occasionally macabre, and possessed of a prose style of diamond-sharp precision. His tales feature delicately drawn characters and finely judged narratives, and his work influenced A.A. Milne, Noël Coward, and P.G. Wodehouse. \u003cspan class=\"inline-flex\" data-state=\"closed\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e This selection, chosen and introduced by John Letts, draws from \u003cem\u003eReginald in Russia\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Chronicles of Clovis\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eBeasts and Super-Beasts\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Toys of Peace\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eThe Square Egg\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cspan class=\"inline-flex\" data-state=\"closed\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e— an ideal introduction to Saki's art and a delight for those who know it well.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe illustrations by Sir Osbert Lancaster are a masterstroke of editorial judgement. Lancaster's draughtsmanship — witty, precise, and steeped in the same Edwardian world that Saki so mercilessly dissected — complements the text with a rare sympathy. Frontispiece and nine full-page drawings throughout. Bound in lime-green cloth printed with Lancaster's busy London street scenes in dark green. Gilt-lettered title to spine. Yellow top edge and endpapers. 244 pp.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eHoused in the original brown card slipcase.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThis first impression copy is in very good condition throughout — cloth bright, pages clean and fresh, binding tight and square. Light tanning to spine, as is typical of this edition. Slipcase present and sound.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eA thoroughly English book in the best possible sense — ideal for collectors of Folio Society editions, Edwardian literature, or the work of Sir Osbert Lancaster.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55591887929729,"sku":"26-04-014","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/short-stories-the-folio-society-saki-hh-munro-1976-first-impression-drawings-by-sir-osbert-lancaster-in-slipcase-1375209.jpg?v=1778402613"},{"product_id":"saint-joan-of-arc-vita-sackville-west-folio-society-1995-first-edition","title":"Saint Joan of Arc — The Folio Society | Vita Sackville-West | 1995 | First Edition | Woodcuts by Chris Daunt | Fine in Slipcase","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eA fine first edition of the Folio Society's 1995 publication of \u003cem\u003eSaint Joan of Arc\u003c\/em\u003e by Vita Sackville-West — one of the most celebrated biographies of the twentieth century, and a production of considerable elegance and distinction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe story of Joan of Arc is one of the most extraordinary in all of human history. Born 6 January 1412 into an obscure peasant family in the village of Domrémy, she claimed divine visions commanding her to drive the English from France and see the Dauphin crowned at Reims. Against every conceivable obstacle — of birth, of sex, of rank, of military convention — she succeeded. Burned as a heretic at the stake in Rouen on 30 May 1431, aged no more than nineteen, she was rehabilitated posthumously, beatified in 1909, and canonised as a Saint of the Catholic Church on 16 May 1920. Nearly six centuries after her death, she remains the national heroine of France and one of the most debated and written-about figures in Western history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eVita Sackville-West's biography, first published in 1936, stands apart from the vast literature on Joan as a work of genuine literary distinction. Sackville-West brings to her subject not only formidable scholarly rigour — drawing on the original trial transcripts and rehabilitation proceedings — but a writer's instinct for character, atmosphere, and the telling detail. The result is a biography that is simultaneously authoritative and deeply humane: clear-eyed about the historical record, yet fully alive to the charisma, the courage, and the enigma of its subject. It remains, nearly ninety years after first publication, the biography of Joan that serious readers return to.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe Folio Society's production matches the gravity of the text with an edition of quiet, assured elegance. Bound in deep navy blue cloth, the front board stamped with a single silver sword device — spare, heraldic, and entirely fitting for its subject. Silver lettering to spine. Illustrated throughout with woodcuts by the English artist Chris Daunt, placed at chapter headings; colour frontispiece portrait of Joan; blue-printed map endpapers charting the campaigns of the Hundred Years War. 339 pp., including chronological table, genealogical table, eleven appendices, bibliography, and index — a complete and scholarly apparatus that reflects the seriousness with which Folio approached this commission.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eHoused in the original silver slipcase bearing Joan's original French name — \u003cem\u003eJehanne\u003c\/em\u003e — in navy script across the front panel. A memorably conceived and quietly beautiful production.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThis first edition copy is in fine condition throughout — cloth bright and entirely unmarked, pages clean, fresh and unopened in feel, binding tight and square. The silver slipcase has one very small surface mark to one panel, as visible in photographs, but is otherwise sound, clean, and complete, with the book itself entirely unaffected.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eA distinguished piece for collectors of Folio Society editions, medieval and French history, the history of the Hundred Years War, or the life and work of Vita Sackville-West — one of the most gifted and fascinating women writers of the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55591907950977,"sku":"26-04-015","price":40.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/saint-joan-of-arc-the-folio-society-vita-sackville-west-1995-first-edition-woodcuts-by-chris-daunt-fine-in-slipcase-3528135.jpg?v=1781147122"},{"product_id":"memoirs-of-a-fox-hunting-man-sassoon-folio-society-1971-lynton-lamb","title":"Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man — The Folio Society | Siegfried Sassoon | 1971 | Second Impression | Drawings by Lynton Lamb | in Slipcase","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eA very good copy of the Folio Society's 1971 publication of \u003cem\u003eMemoirs of a Fox-hunting Man\u003c\/em\u003e by Siegfried Sassoon — the first and most beloved volume of the Sherston trilogy, and one of the finest evocations of Edwardian England ever committed to the page.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eFirst published in 1928 and awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, \u003cem\u003eMemoirs of a Fox-hunting Man\u003c\/em\u003e is one of those rare books that manages to be two things at once: a deeply pleasurable pastoral idyll — all cricket, horses, hounds, and long summer days in the English countryside — and, beneath that sunlit surface, an elegy for a world already slipping away. The narrator George Sherston, Sassoon's barely disguised alter ego, moves through the rituals of Edwardian rural life with an innocent delight that the reader knows, from the outset, is doomed. The First World War waits at the edge of every chapter. It is one of the essential English books of the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe Folio Society's edition honours the text with a production of considerable charm. Bound in cream pictorial cloth, the boards printed with a wraparound design of the hunt in full cry — riders in scarlet jackets, hounds streaming across a winter landscape — the whole drawn with an ease and energy that perfectly captures the spirit of Sassoon's prose. Red title label to spine, lettered in gilt. Illustrated throughout with drawings by Lynton Lamb, whose draughtsmanship is sympathetic, assured, and deeply in keeping with the period of the text. Introduction by Sir Alan Lascelles. 290 pp.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eHoused in the original grey card slipcase.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThis second impression copy is in very good condition throughout — cloth bright and clean, the red printing to the boards vivid and unfaded, pages fresh and unmarked, binding firm and tight. The slipcase shows some light wear to the top edge and a little dust, consistent with age, but is otherwise sound and complete. A handsome and eminently readable copy of a timeless English classic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eOf particular interest to collectors of First World War literature, Edwardian social history, field sports, and fine Folio Society editions of the 1970s. Note: this is volume one only of the Sherston trilogy; the complete three-volume set is also highly sought after.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55591952318849,"sku":"26-04-016","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/memoirs-of-a-fox-hunting-man-the-folio-society-siegfried-sassoon-1971-second-impression-drawings-by-lynton-lamb-in-slipcase-5741030.jpg?v=1781147125"},{"product_id":"father-and-son-edmund-gosse-folio-society-1972-first-edition","title":"Father and Son — The Folio Society | Edmund Gosse | 1972 | First Edition | A Study of Two Temperaments | Illustrated","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eA copy of the Folio Society's 1972 edition of \u003cem\u003eFather and Son\u003c\/em\u003e by Edmund Gosse — one of the most remarkable memoirs in the English language, and a landmark in the literature of Victorian self-examination.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eFirst published anonymously in 1907, \u003cem\u003eFather and Son\u003c\/em\u003e is Edmund Gosse's account of his extraordinary childhood — raised in a household of strict Plymouth Brethren faith by his father Philip Gosse, a distinguished marine biologist whose scientific knowledge placed him in agonising conflict with Darwin's theory of evolution. The elder Gosse's response — to reject evolution entirely on grounds of Scripture — is one of the great intellectual tragedies of the Victorian age, and his son's gradual, painful liberation from his father's world is told with a delicacy, wit, and compassion that has never been surpassed. It is at once a document of religious history, a study of the Victorian family, and one of the most searching explorations of the father-son relationship in all of literature. First published anonymously, it was immediately recognised as a masterpiece.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe Folio Society production is an attractive one. The cloth boards are printed with full-colour watercolour illustrations — the family home in Devon on the front board, a lush Victorian garden on the rear — vivid, warm, and entirely in sympathy with the domestic intimacy of Gosse's narrative. Gold lettering to spine. Black and white photographic plates throughout. Marbled endpapers. Introduction by Peter Abbs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eHoused in the original grey card slipcase.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition note:\u003c\/strong\u003e The boards are bright and clean. The spine shows noticeable fading, as is common with this edition. The slipcase has splitting and wear to the corners. The interior of the book is clean, fresh, and unmarked throughout — a sound reading and collecting copy at an honest price.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55592000586113,"sku":"26-04-017","price":12.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/father-and-son-the-folio-society-edmund-gosse-1972-first-edition-a-study-of-two-temperaments-illustrated-3459560.jpg?v=1778402621"},{"product_id":"trial-of-john-bunyan-persecution-of-puritans-folio-society-1978","title":"The Trial of John Bunyan \u0026 The Persecution of the Puritans — The Folio Society | 1978 | First Edition | Japanese Wood Veneer Boards | Quarter Leather","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eA very good first edition of the Folio Society's 1978 publication of \u003cem\u003eThe Trial of John Bunyan \u0026amp; The Persecution of the Puritans\u003c\/em\u003e — a beautifully produced anthology drawn from the primary writings of two of the most compelling figures in the history of English Nonconformism, and one of the most distinctive bindings in the Folio Society's catalogue of the 1970s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eJohn Bunyan (1628–1688) is best known as the author of \u003cem\u003eThe Pilgrim's Progress\u003c\/em\u003e, one of the most widely read books in the English language. But his significance extends far beyond that single masterwork: he was a preacher, a polemicist, and a man of extraordinary moral courage who endured twelve years of imprisonment at Bedford Gaol rather than renounce his right to preach outside the established Church. His account of that imprisonment — written in his own hand, with simplicity, honesty, and a fierce quiet dignity — is one of the essential documents of English religious and political history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eAlongside Bunyan's own writings, this volume includes the remarkable narrative of Agnes Beaumont (d. 1720), a young Puritan woman whose account of her own persecution stands as an equally compelling and unjustly neglected record of the dangers faced by Nonconformists in Restoration England. The selection is introduced and edited by Monica Furlong, one of the most respected religious writers and thinkers of the twentieth century, whose introduction provides an authoritative and sympathetic context for these extraordinary texts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe Folio Society's production is one of quiet, considered distinction. Quarter bound in dark brown skiver leather over Japanese wood veneer boards — a binding material of genuine originality and appropriateness, evoking the austere material culture of seventeenth-century Puritanism with considerable skill. Silver cross devices and lettering to spine. Brown top edge. Illustrated with ten black and white plates reproducing contemporary portraits, etchings, woodcuts, and facsimiles of manuscripts and early printed books relating to Bunyan and the Puritans. 200 pp.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eHoused in the original tan card slipcase, which has split along the spine edge — as is common with this edition — but otherwise remains present and functional.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe book itself is in very good condition throughout — leather spine bright and clean, wood veneer boards sound and attractive, pages fresh, binding tight and square.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eA compelling piece for collectors of English religious history, seventeenth-century literature, Nonconformist history, or fine Folio Society productions of the 1970s.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55592049377665,"sku":"26-04-018","price":18.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/the-trial-of-john-bunyan-the-persecution-of-the-puritans-the-folio-society-1978-first-edition-japanese-wood-veneer-boards-quarter-leather-3508876.jpg?v=1778402604"},{"product_id":"folio-book-of-short-novels-folio-society-1995-sara-fanelli","title":"The Folio Book of Short Novels — The Folio Society | 1995 | First Edition | Illustrated by Sara Fanelli | in Slipcase","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eA very good first edition of \u003cem\u003eThe Folio Book of Short Novels\u003c\/em\u003e, published by the Folio Society in 1995 — an expertly curated anthology bringing together five of the greatest short novels in world literature, in a production as visually inventive as its contents are distinguished.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe selection is exceptional: \u003cem\u003eThe Turn of the Screw\u003c\/em\u003e by Henry James, that most unsettling of ghost stories, in which ambiguity itself becomes the source of horror; \u003cem\u003eThe Call of the Wild\u003c\/em\u003e by Jack London, one of the defining adventure narratives of American literature; \u003cem\u003eDeath in Venice\u003c\/em\u003e by Thomas Mann, a novella of fatal obsession and artistic dissolution set against the glittering, decaying backdrop of La Serenissima; \u003cem\u003eThe Virgin and the Gipsy\u003c\/em\u003e by D.H. Lawrence, a late, luminous work of suppressed passion and breaking convention; and \u003cem\u003eGigi\u003c\/em\u003e by Colette, that most Parisian of tales, sparkling with wit and an unsentimental understanding of desire. Together they form a collection of remarkable range and depth — five masterworks, five distinct worlds, five of the most compelling prose voices of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe Folio Society's production matches the quality of the contents with a design of considerable originality. The silver illustrated boards carry Sara Fanelli's playful, instantly recognisable graphic design — miniature Eiffel Tower for \u003cem\u003eGigi\u003c\/em\u003e, a Venetian gondola for \u003cem\u003eDeath in Venice\u003c\/em\u003e, the spectral elongated figure for \u003cem\u003eThe Turn of the Screw\u003c\/em\u003e — each story given its own visual shorthand with wit and economy. Fanelli's illustrations continue throughout the text. Dark blue endpapers. 408 pp.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eHoused in the original red card slipcase.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition note:\u003c\/strong\u003e The book is in very good condition internally — pages clean, binding firm and tight, text fresh throughout. The silver boards have some light surface marks and grazing, as noted and visible in photographs. The red slipcase is in good condition with minor shelf wear. Priced honestly to reflect the board condition.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55592069628289,"sku":"26-04-019","price":22.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/the-folio-book-of-short-novels-the-folio-society-1995-first-edition-illustrated-by-sara-fanelli-in-slipcase-3168935.jpg?v=1778402598"},{"product_id":"a-man-of-singular-virtue-folio-society-1980-thomas-more-rowse","title":"A Man of Singular Virtue — The Folio Society | Sir Thomas More | 1980 | First Edition | Illustrated | Annual Presentation Book","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eA fine first edition of the Folio Society's 1980 Annual Presentation Book, \u003cem\u003eA Man of Singular Virtue\u003c\/em\u003e — a beautifully produced account of one of the most extraordinary men in English history, in a binding of considerable elegance and character.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eSir Thomas More (1478–1535) was, by any measure, a figure of remarkable distinction: lawyer, humanist scholar, author of \u003cem\u003eUtopia\u003c\/em\u003e, friend of Erasmus, Lord High Chancellor of England under Henry VIII, and ultimately a martyr who chose death over the compromise of his conscience. His refusal to acknowledge Henry's break with Rome, his steadfast adherence to principle in the face of overwhelming power, and his courage at the scaffold have made him one of the enduring moral exemplars of Western history. He was canonised by the Catholic Church in 1935, four hundred years after his execution.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe primary text here is the biography written by More's own son-in-law William Roper — one of the great short biographies in the English language, intimate, vivid, and deeply moving. Roper knew More as well as any man alive, and his account of the final years, the trial, and the execution carries an authority and pathos that no later biographer has surpassed. Accompanying this is a selection of More's own letters, selected and introduced by the distinguished Tudor historian A.L. Rowse, whose eighteen-page introduction provides a characteristically authoritative context.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe Folio Society's production matches the gravity of its subject. Quarter bound in black cloth, the spine carrying elaborate gilt arabesque decoration of considerable beauty. Red cloth boards stamped in gilt with More's own Latin signature — \u003cem\u003eEgo T. Morus\u003c\/em\u003e — as it appears in his own hand. Green endpapers. Illustrated throughout with 57 colour and black and white plates reproducing portraits, manuscript facsimiles, contemporary paintings, and documents relating to More and his world — including the celebrated Holbein portraits. 127 pp.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eHoused in the original cream card slipcase printed with a repeating red decorative border design.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe book itself is in fine condition throughout — boards bright and clean, gilt vivid and undimmed, pages fresh and unmarked, binding firm and square. The slipcase has a split and slight peeling to the top corner, as noted and visible in photographs, but is otherwise present and sound.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eA distinguished piece for collectors of Tudor history, Renaissance humanism, English martyrology, Catholic biography, or fine Folio Society productions of the 1980s.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55592089747841,"sku":"26-04-020","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/a-man-of-singular-virtue-the-folio-society-sir-thomas-more-1980-first-edition-illustrated-annual-presentation-book-9710642.jpg?v=1778402605"},{"product_id":"the-complete-sportsman-c-1760-waltons-complete-angler-1826-two-books-from-the-gresley-collection-signed-charles-gresley-antiquarian-field-sports","title":"The Complete Sportsman c.1760 \u0026 Walton's Complete Angler 1826 — Two Books from the Gresley Collection | Signed Charles Gresley | Antiquarian Field Sports","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTwo books, one hand, one shelf.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThese arrived together and we've kept them together, because they belong together. Both carry the same signature on the front endpaper — \u003cem\u003eCharles Gresley\u003c\/em\u003e, written with the same flourish and the same looping underline beneath it, unmistakably the same man on the same afternoon with the same pen. And both are about the same thing: getting out of the house.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eOne teaches you to chase things across a field. The other teaches you to stand very still in a river. Between them they cover the whole range of what an English gentleman did with his time when he wasn't obliged to do anything at all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr class=\"border-border-200 border-t-0.5 my-3 mx-1.5\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Complete Sportsman; or, Country Gentleman's Recreation\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThomas Fairfax, Esq. — London: printed for J. Cooke at Shakespear's-Head, Pater-noster-Row. Undated, c.1760s.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThis is the Georgian country gentleman's handbook to absolutely everything, and it does not know the meaning of restraint. Hare-hunting, fox-hunting, buck-hunting and otter-hunting. The rearing and backing of colts. The management of race-horses. Coursing, bowling, and angling in all its various branches. The breeding of pigeons, rabbits and canary birds. Finding the haunts of partridges and pheasants. Shooting — and shooting flying, which was still a novelty worth writing about. There is a great deal on game cocks and how to fight them, which is a window onto eighteenth-century leisure that we'd rather leave open than paint over.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe engraved frontispiece is the best thing in it: an entire hunt in full cry, riders, hounds pouring across the middle distance, and one solitary angler standing in the water paying no attention to any of them. Beneath it a couplet that tells you exactly what the book thinks of itself — \u003cem\u003eA Chace is Sure superior to all Wealth; It gives us Pleasure, and it gives us Health.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eOne thing we should clear up, because plenty of sellers don't. This is not Sir Thomas Fairfax the Civil War general. He died in 1671, which puts him roughly ninety years short. \"Thomas Fairfax, Esq.\" was a name the trade stuck on the title page to shift copies, and it worked — the book went through edition after edition, many of them undated and all of them cheerfully confusing to bibliographers ever since.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eRebound in the nineteenth century in half green calf over marbled boards, spine ruled in gilt with a red morocco label. Inside the front board, still bright, is the trade ticket of \u003cstrong\u003eB. Hunt \u0026amp; Sons of High Street, Birmingham\u003c\/strong\u003e — engravers, copper plate printers and bookbinders. Somebody in the Midlands cared enough about this book to have it properly dressed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr class=\"border-border-200 border-t-0.5 my-3 mx-1.5\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Complete Angler of Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton — Volume I\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eChiswick: printed by C. and C. Whittingham, sold by Thomas Tegg of Cheapside and others. 1826.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe loveliest book ever written about doing very little. First published in 1653 and never out of print since, \u003cem\u003eThe Complete Angler\u003c\/em\u003e is only nominally about fishing. It is really about friendship, birdsong, country inns, milkmaids who sing, and the specific and irreplaceable happiness of a day spent nowhere important. Here it is in the handsome little Whittingham printing of Sir John Hawkins's text, issued for Thomas Tegg's Cabinet Library, with an engraved portrait of Walton at the front and a vignette title showing a creel and rod abandoned under the trees, which is the whole book in one picture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis is Volume I of two, and Volume II is not present.\u003c\/strong\u003e We'd rather tell you that in bold than let you find it out at the bottom of the page.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eAnd then there's the thing pasted inside the front board, which is our favourite detail in either book. It is a \u003cem\u003ePunch\u003c\/em\u003e cartoon captioned \u003cstrong\u003e\"Walton's Complete Bungler\"\u003c\/strong\u003e — a fisherman in a flat cap, line hopelessly wrapped round the branches above him, face a picture of pure despair, over the caption \u003cem\u003e\"Confound it! — and the fish rising so nicely!\"\u003c\/em\u003e Somebody cut that out and stuck it in the front of their Walton on purpose. We choose to believe it was Mr Gresley, and that he knew exactly what he was admitting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eBound in contemporary half calf over marbled boards with marbled edges, gilt-ruled spine, red morocco label. \u003cem\u003e(A small point that catches people out: the preliminaries include an \"Advertisement to the Edition Published by Sir John Hawkins, 1760.\" That's reprinted editorial matter, not a date. The book is 1826.)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr class=\"border-border-200 border-t-0.5 my-3 mx-1.5\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA word about the Gresleys\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe name in the front of these books belongs to one of the oldest families in England — and one of the more quietly extraordinary.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe Gresleys were Norman. Domesday recorded Nigel de Stafford holding the manor of Drakelowe in Derbyshire towards the close of the eleventh century, and his descendants held it for nine hundred years — as long as any family in England is said to have owned the same patch of ground. They took their surname from Castle Gresley, founded a priory nearby before the year 1200, and in 1611 were granted a baronetcy that was the sixth oldest in the whole of Britain.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThey were not, however, a family much given to caution. Sir Nigel Gresley, the sixth baronet, went to sea with the Royal Navy at a tender age, made lieutenant, was invalided out with rheumatism, inherited Drakelow and Knypersley, discovered he was sitting on coal, and in 1775 got an Act of Parliament through to dig his own canal — which then held a monopoly on Newcastle-under-Lyme coal for forty-two years. His kinsman Sir Roger, the eighth baronet, went the other way entirely: Christ Church, Oxford without troubling to take a degree, a celebrated London dandy, a seat in Parliament, and a gambling habit that ate most of the family fortune and obliged him to sell nearly everything to stay solvent. He died at thirty-seven, and his library went under the hammer the following spring.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe family motto, chosen long before either of them, is \u003cem\u003eMeliore fide quam fortuna\u003c\/em\u003e — better in faith than in fortune. One suspects it was tested.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eOur Charles belonged to the Lichfield branch — we know from the armorial bookplate in another book from this same library, which names him \u003cem\u003eCharles Gresley, Esquire, of Lichfield\u003c\/em\u003e. Richard Gresley of Stowe House, Lichfield, a descendant of the Drakelow Gresleys and a bencher of the Middle Temple, headed that line, and his eldest son William became a prebendary of Lichfield Cathedral in 1840. There is a memorial to a Charles Gresley in the cathedral itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThere is one more Gresley you will certainly have heard of, even if the name means nothing to you. A younger branch had settled at Netherseal, where four successive Gresleys served as rector of St Peter's; the last of them, the Reverend Nigel Gresley, had a fourth son born in 1876. That son was Sir Herbert Nigel Gresley, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the LNER, who designed the Flying Scotsman and the Mallard — which in 1938 hit 126 miles per hour and still holds the world record for a steam locomotive. The family that turned up in Domesday with a plough ended up with the fastest thing on rails.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe last Gresley left Drakelowe Hall in 1931, after twenty-eight generations. The house was pulled down three years later and a power station built on the site. The books, evidently, got out.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance.\u003c\/strong\u003e From the library of \u003cstrong\u003eCharles Gresley, Esquire, of Lichfield\u003c\/strong\u003e, of the Lichfield branch of the Gresleys of Drakelowe, whose signature appears on the front endpaper of both volumes and whose armorial bookplate appears in another book from the same group. Acquired by us at auction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr class=\"border-border-200 border-t-0.5 my-3 mx-1.5\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition, told straight\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eNeither of these is a fine copy and we won't dress them up as one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe Fairfax has a rubbed spine with real surface loss, a chipped label, a cracked front joint and a hinge that's started to go internally. The boards are on and it handles perfectly well, but it wants a gentle hand. Corners worn through. Pages toned with scattered foxing throughout, which is simply what paper of this age does. Frontispiece and title both present and clear.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe Walton is rougher. The head of the spine is chipped away with the blue headband showing through, the front joint is cracked, the corners are worn and the label is defective. The text block is sound and the leaves are clean enough. Frontispiece and vignette title both present.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eSo — reading copies and shelf copies, not investment pieces. But between them they've got the better part of four hundred and fifty years on the clock, they've survived a good deal more than most objects manage, and standing side by side they look magnificent.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eOne last thing. Pencilled in the back of each are prices from booksellers long gone: £2.50 and £1.50. Somebody, once, got an absolute steal.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eSold as a pair. Part of the Gresley Collection. One of a kind — when they're gone, they're gone.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eFree UK delivery. Hand-wrapped by us in stiff card and packing paper.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Novel Relics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56008275394945,"sku":"26-08-001","price":210.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/the-complete-sportsman-c1760-waltons-complete-angler-1826-two-books-from-the-gresley-collection-signed-charles-gresley-antiquarian-field-sports-7782823.jpg?v=1785621626"},{"product_id":"noble-and-gentle-men-of-england-shirley-1859-first-edition","title":"The Noble and Gentle Men of England — Evelyn Philip Shirley | 1859 First Edition | Charles Gresley of Lichfield's Copy | Armorial Bookplate","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA gentleman of an ancient house, looking up his own family.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1859 Evelyn Philip Shirley published his attempt to set down, county by county, the arms and descents of every ancient knightly and gentle house still surviving in England — those established before the sixteenth century, traced in the male line, still holding their ground. It was a serious piece of Victorian antiquarian labour and it remains a standard reference.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis copy belonged to \u003cstrong\u003eCharles Gresley, Esquire, of Lichfield\u003c\/strong\u003e. We know because his armorial bookplate is pasted inside the front board, encircled with the words \u003cem\u003eLiber Caroli Gresley Armigeri de Lichfield A.D. 1854\u003c\/em\u003e — the book of Charles Gresley, Esquire, of Lichfield.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhich means that when this book arrived, he could turn to the Derbyshire pages and find his own family waiting for him.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Shirley connection.\u003c\/strong\u003e Pasted beneath the bookplate, in Gresley's hand, is the single word \u003cem\u003eFrom\u003c\/em\u003e — and below it a cut fragment of a letter in Shirley's own writing, ending \u003cem\u003emy dear sir, very sincerely yours\u003c\/em\u003e, with his full signature. Gresley kept the proof of who gave him the book and stuck it in the front. We should be precise: this is a pasted letter fragment, not an inscription written into the volume. What it strongly suggests is a gift from one antiquary to another; what it certainly is, is Shirley's autograph, preserved on purpose.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTipped in at the preface is a newspaper cutting reporting Shirley's death — of Eatington Park, in his seventy-first year, sometime Member for Monaghan and afterwards for the southern division of Warwickshire, retired from the Commons in 1865, author of this book and of \u003cem\u003eThe Shirleys of Eatington\u003c\/em\u003e. A further folded cutting about the Baronetage sits loose, pencil-dated 1898. Both postdate Shirley's death in 1882, so either Gresley lived on and kept feeding his book, or a later owner carried on the habit. We can't tell you which, but somebody cared about this volume for a very long time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eA word about the Gresleys\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe name on the bookplate belongs to one of the oldest families in England — and one of the more quietly extraordinary.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Gresleys were Norman. Domesday recorded Nigel de Stafford holding the manor of Drakelowe in Derbyshire towards the close of the eleventh century, and his descendants held it for nine hundred years — as long as any family in England is said to have owned the same patch of ground. They took their surname from Castle Gresley, founded a priory nearby before the year 1200, and in 1611 were granted a baronetcy that was the sixth oldest in the whole of Britain.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThey were not, however, a family much given to caution. Sir Nigel Gresley, the sixth baronet, went to sea with the Royal Navy at a tender age, made lieutenant, was invalided out with rheumatism, inherited Drakelow and Knypersley, discovered he was sitting on coal, and in 1775 got an Act of Parliament through to dig his own canal — which then held a monopoly on Newcastle-under-Lyme coal for forty-two years. His kinsman Sir Roger, the eighth baronet, went the other way entirely: Christ Church, Oxford without troubling to take a degree, a celebrated London dandy, a seat in Parliament, and a gambling habit that ate most of the family fortune and obliged him to sell nearly everything to stay solvent. He died at thirty-seven, and his library went under the hammer the following spring.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe family motto, chosen long before either of them, is \u003cem\u003eMeliore fide quam fortuna\u003c\/em\u003e — better in faith than in fortune. One suspects it was tested.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOur Charles belonged to the Lichfield branch. Richard Gresley of Stowe House, Lichfield, a descendant of the Drakelow Gresleys and a bencher of the Middle Temple, headed that line, and his eldest son William became a prebendary of Lichfield Cathedral in 1840. There is a memorial to a Charles Gresley in the cathedral itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThere is one more Gresley you will certainly have heard of, even if the name means nothing to you. A younger branch had settled at Netherseal, where four successive Gresleys served as rector of St Peter's; the last of them, the Reverend Nigel Gresley, had a fourth son born in 1876. That son was Sir Herbert Nigel Gresley, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the LNER, who designed the Flying Scotsman and the Mallard — which in 1938 hit 126 miles per hour and still holds the world record for a steam locomotive. The family that turned up in Domesday with a plough ended up with the fastest thing on rails.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe last Gresley left Drakelowe Hall in 1931, after twenty-eight generations. The house was pulled down three years later and a power station built on the site. The books, evidently, got out.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance.\u003c\/strong\u003e From the library of \u003cstrong\u003eCharles Gresley, Esquire, of Lichfield\u003c\/strong\u003e, of the Lichfield branch of the Gresleys of Drakelowe, whose armorial bookplate — \u003cem\u003eLiber Caroli Gresley Armigeri de Lichfield A.D. 1854\u003c\/em\u003e — identifies him beyond doubt. Acquired by us at auction as part of a small group of books from that library, each carrying his name.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition.\u003c\/strong\u003e Handsomely bound in full maroon leather, lettered in gilt direct to both spine and front board, with gilt ornaments in the compartments and raised bands. Rubbing to the spine ends and board edges, corners lightly worn, a few marks to the covers. Internally toned with scattered foxing and some tide-marking, heavier around the tipped-in material. Square, tight and entirely sound — much the best preserved book we have handled from this library.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePart of the Gresley Collection. One of a kind — when it's gone, it's gone.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFree UK delivery. Hand-wrapped in stiff card and packing paper.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"John Bowyer Nichols and Sons","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56008311406977,"sku":"26-08-002","price":225.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/the-noble-and-gentle-men-of-england-evelyn-philip-shirley-1859-first-edition-charles-gresley-of-lichfields-copy-armorial-bookplate-6494140.jpg?v=1786617396"},{"product_id":"story-of-the-odyssey-church-1892-first-edition-flaxman","title":"The Story of the Odyssey — Rev. Alfred J. Church | Seeley \u0026 Co. 1892 | First Edition | 16 Colour Plates after Flaxman | Decorated Cloth","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHomer, retold for Victorian children, and illustrated like a Greek vase.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eAlfred Church was a clergyman and Professor of Latin at University College London who spent the back half of his life doing something rather generous: making the classics readable for people who hadn't been beaten through them at school. This is his \u003cem\u003eOdyssey\u003c\/em\u003e, published by Seeley in 1892 and reviewed in \u003cem\u003eThe Classical Review\u003c\/em\u003e that same May — the first edition, alongside its companion volume on the Iliad.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe illustrations are what make it. They are taken after \u003cstrong\u003eJohn Flaxman\u003c\/strong\u003e, the great neoclassical draughtsman, and printed here as pale terracotta figures against solid black, in deliberate imitation of Greek red-figure vase painting. Nestor's sacrifice, Ulysses preparing to fight with Irus, the whole voyage rendered in clean outline. They look like nothing else on a shelf and they have aged far better than most Victorian book illustration.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe binding is publisher's brick-red cloth, blocked in gilt with a Flaxman chariot scene on the front board and a laurel-wreathed portrait of Homer beneath it, with a small gilt lyre on the spine. Solid, handsome, unmistakably of its decade.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition.\u003c\/strong\u003e Honest and well-read. The spine ends are frayed with some loss at the head, the cloth is rubbed along the edges and at the corners, and there is a dark stain and some scattered marks to the rear board. Internally toned with light foxing. \u003cstrong\u003eOne plate — Ulysses preparing to fight with Irus — has come loose from the binding and sits free in the book.\u003c\/strong\u003e It is present, clean and undamaged, but it is detached, and we would rather you knew that before ordering than after opening the parcel. The remaining plates are secure and the text block is sound.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eA lovely reading copy of a genuinely beautiful piece of Victorian book-making, priced for its faults.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eOne of a kind — when it's gone, it's gone.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eFree UK delivery. Hand-wrapped in stiff card and packing paper.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Seeley and Co.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56025411977601,"sku":"26-08-004","price":28.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/the-story-of-the-odyssey-rev-alfred-j-church-seeley-co-1892-first-edition-16-colour-plates-after-flaxman-decorated-cloth-5833682.jpg?v=1786617406"},{"product_id":"greek-myths-robert-graves-folio-society-1996-quarter-leather","title":"The Greek Myths — Robert Graves | Folio Society 1996 | Quarter Leather | Illustrated by Grahame Baker | In Slipcase","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe book that made the Greek myths readable, in the binding Folio doesn't do any more.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eRobert Graves spent a lifetime among these stories and retold all of them — every god, every hero, every unfortunate nymph — in prose that moves briskly and never talks down to you. It remains the most enjoyable single volume on the subject anyone has written: seven hundred pages of gods behaving appallingly and mortals paying for it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eA word of honesty about the scholarship, because it's part of the book's character. Graves attached his own theory to the myths — that they preserve traces of a lost matriarchal religion overthrown by patriarchal invaders — and classicists have been rolling their eyes at it ever since. Read him for the storytelling, which is superb, and take the theorising as the enthusiasm of a poet rather than the findings of an archaeologist. He would probably not have minded.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis is the 1996 Folio Society edition, and the binding is the point.\u003c\/strong\u003e It is quarter-bound in deep brown leather — one of the very last standard Folio Society titles to be leather-bound at all — with a gilt Greek key band running down the board edge and the title in gilt to the spine. The boards carry Grahame Baker's two-colour scraperboard illustration of Leda and the Swan, done in the manner of a red-figure vase and rather good at conveying that Leda has just worked out what is happening. Sixteen further illustrations by Baker appear inside, along with map endpapers by Denys Baker and page tops stained dark brown.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWorth knowing if you're comparing copies.\u003c\/strong\u003e From 1998 Folio reissued this as a smaller two-volume set in plain cloth with white boards and monochrome illustrations. It's a perfectly decent book but it isn't this one. This is the single-volume leather issue, the first form, with the colour plates intact.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition.\u003c\/strong\u003e Very good overall, with the faults confined to the spine.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe gilt lettering is marked, with flecking and loss to the gold across the letters, and there are several small white specks scattered on the spine leather. Both are visible in our photographs, which we have taken close and in full light rather than flattering them. Everything else is in fine order: the leather is clean and supple with no scuffing or dryness, the boards are fresh, the Leda illustration is crisp and unfaded, and the gilt Greek key band is bright. Internally clean and tight throughout, seemingly little read. The slipcase shows light rubbing to the corners and edges but is sound and unsplit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003ePriced for the spine. Shelve it with that side to the wall and you'd never know — but you'd know, so we've told you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eA handsome book that will not stay handsome by accident, and a genuinely good read besides.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eOne of a kind — when it's gone, it's gone.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eFree UK delivery. Hand-wrapped in stiff card and packing paper.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe book that made the Greek myths readable, in the binding Folio doesn't do any more.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eRobert Graves spent a lifetime among these stories and retold all of them — every god, every hero, every unfortunate nymph — in prose that moves briskly and never talks down to you. It remains the most enjoyable single volume on the subject anyone has written: seven hundred pages of gods behaving appallingly and mortals paying for it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eA word of honesty about the scholarship, because it's part of the book's character. Graves attached his own theory to the myths — that they preserve traces of a lost matriarchal religion overthrown by patriarchal invaders — and classicists have been rolling their eyes at it ever since. Read him for the storytelling, which is superb, and take the theorising as the enthusiasm of a poet rather than the findings of an archaeologist. He would probably not have minded.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis is the 1996 Folio Society edition, and the binding is the point.\u003c\/strong\u003e It is quarter-bound in deep brown leather — one of the very last standard Folio Society titles to be leather-bound at all — with a gilt Greek key band running down the board edge and the title in gilt to the spine. The boards carry Grahame Baker's two-colour scraperboard illustration of Leda and the Swan, done in the manner of a red-figure vase and rather good at conveying that Leda has just worked out what is happening. Sixteen further illustrations by Baker appear inside, along with map endpapers by Denys Baker and page tops stained dark brown.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWorth knowing if you're comparing copies.\u003c\/strong\u003e From 1998 Folio reissued this as a smaller two-volume set in plain cloth with white boards and monochrome illustrations. It's a perfectly decent book but it isn't this one. This is the single-volume leather issue, the first form, with the colour plates intact.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition.\u003c\/strong\u003e Very good overall, with the faults confined to the spine.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe gilt lettering is marked, with flecking and loss to the gold across the letters, and there are several small white specks scattered on the spine leather. Both are visible in our photographs, which we have taken close and in full light rather than flattering them. Everything else is in fine order: the leather is clean and supple with no scuffing or dryness, the boards are fresh, the Leda illustration is crisp and unfaded, and the gilt Greek key band is bright. Internally clean and tight throughout, seemingly little read. The slipcase shows light rubbing to the corners and edges but is sound and unsplit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003ePriced for the spine. Shelve it with that side to the wall and you'd never know — but you'd know, so we've told you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eA handsome book that will not stay handsome by accident, and a genuinely good read besides.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eOne of a kind — when it's gone, it's gone.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eFree UK delivery. Hand-wrapped in stiff card and packing paper.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56071012680065,"sku":"26-08-006","price":90.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/the-greek-myths-robert-graves-folio-society-1996-quarter-leather-illustrated-by-grahame-baker-in-slipcase-8876230.jpg?v=1786617396"},{"product_id":"double-cross-system-masterman-folio-society-2007","title":"The Double-Cross System — J.C. Masterman | Folio Society 2007 | WWII Espionage | Introduced by M.R.D. Foot | In Slipcase  Description","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe book the British government did not want published.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eDuring the Second World War, British intelligence achieved something close to miraculous: it captured every single German agent sent to Britain, and then turned a good number of them, running them back against Berlin as double agents. For years the Germans believed they had a functioning spy network in Britain. What they actually had was a carefully managed fiction written by the very people they were spying on — a fiction that culminated in convincing Hitler the D-Day landings were a diversion and the real invasion was still coming at Calais.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe operation was run by the Twenty Committee, so named because twenty in Roman numerals is XX, which is to say a double cross. Somebody in wartime intelligence had a sense of humour.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe man who chaired it wrote this book.\u003c\/strong\u003e Sir John Masterman was an Oxford don before the war and returned to Oxford after it, but in between he ran the double-cross system, and in 1945 he wrote this account as a classified internal report — a cold, precise, extraordinarily clear-eyed assessment of how it had all been done and what had been learned. It was meant for official eyes only.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eIt stayed secret for twenty-seven years. Masterman fought to have it released, was refused repeatedly, and eventually forced the issue by arranging publication through Yale University Press in 1972, which put the whole thing beyond the reach of the British establishment. It caused a considerable fuss at the time. It is now regarded as one of the foundational documents of intelligence history, and everything written about wartime deception since has drawn on it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis is the Folio Society edition of 2007\u003c\/strong\u003e, with an introduction by \u003cstrong\u003eM.R.D. Foot\u003c\/strong\u003e — the official historian of the SOE, and about as authoritative a guide to this territory as exists — and the original foreword by Norman Holmes Pearson of the OSS. Quarter-bound in navy cloth with gilt lettering to the spine, over photographic boards showing four of the agents themselves in gilt-ringed roundels against a naval scene. Black and white photographic plates and facsimile documents throughout. In the matching navy slipcase.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe faces on the cover are worth a moment. These were real people, running enormous risks, most of them living double lives in a country that had every reason to hang them if the arrangement had ever come apart.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition.\u003c\/strong\u003e Good. There is white flecking and a scatter of small white specks along the navy cloth at the front joint and spine edge — paint spatter of some sort, clearly visible in our photographs and the reason this is priced where it is. The gilt lettering is bright and unrubbed, the photographic boards are clean and unfaded, and the corners are sharp. Internally clean, tight and apparently unread, with the plates crisp. The slipcase is sound with light edge wear.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eA superb piece of history at a price that reflects a mark on the cloth rather than anything wrong with the book.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eOne of a kind — when it's gone, it's gone.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eFree UK delivery. Hand-wrapped in stiff card and packing paper.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56071059210625,"sku":"26-08-007","price":24.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/the-double-cross-system-jc-masterman-folio-society-2007-wwii-espionage-introduced-by-mrd-foot-in-slipcase-description-7638931.jpg?v=1786617384"},{"product_id":"memoirs-of-a-british-agent-folio-society-bruce-lockhart","title":"Memoirs of a British Agent — R. H. Bruce Lockhart, Folio Society","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn September 1918, a Scottish diplomat sat in a cell inside the Kremlin, accused of plotting to shoot Lenin. He had arrived in Russia six years earlier as a junior vice-consul with a talent for football and a weakness for married women, and he would leave it as one of the most notorious Britons alive. This is his account of how that happened.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRobert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart was Acting Consul-General in Moscow when the first revolution broke out in 1917. He was sent home that autumn over an affair, and recalled again in January 1918 — this time as head of the British Mission to the Bolsheviks, with official relations severed and nobody entirely certain what his job was, least of all the Foreign Office. He knew Trotsky. He argued with him. He watched the old order come apart at close quarters and wrote it all down afterwards with an honesty that must have caused a good deal of discomfort in Whitehall.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThen came the Ambassadors' Plot, Fanny Kaplan's bullets, arrest, the Kremlin cell, and eventual release in exchange for Litvinov. Lockhart published the book in 1932 and it made him famous all over again. Hollywood filmed it two years later.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe woman on the front board is Moura Budberg, who was his lover in Moscow and afterwards belonged to Gorky, and afterwards to H. G. Wells. She is the reason this is a love story as much as a political memoir, and Lockhart was too good a writer to pretend otherwise.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Folio Society edition of 2003, second printing 2004. Quarter blue cloth over laminated pictorial boards, with photographs of Lockhart and Moura printed across Russian newsprint reporting the affair, gilt lettering to the spine, and the original blue slipcase. Introduction, epilogue and notes by Robin Bruce Lockhart, the author's son, who also wrote the life of Sidney Reilly and had been told his father's covert work would stay classified for a century. 280 pages, with sixteen pages of photographic plates.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCondition: Fine. The gilt is bright, the laminate lies flat with no lifting at the corners, the boards are square and the binding tight. Pages and plates are clean throughout, with no foxing and no inscriptions. The slipcase is unsplit and unmarked. A copy that appears never to have been read.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFree UK delivery. Hand-packed in stiff card and packing paper, as everything here is.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56071111180673,"sku":"26-08-009","price":32.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/memoirs-of-a-british-agent-r-h-bruce-lockhart-folio-society-5465823.jpg?v=1786617381"},{"product_id":"bed-29-and-other-stories-maupassant-folio-society","title":"Bed 29 and Other Stories — Guy de Maupassant, Folio Society","description":"\u003cp\u003eA courtesan lies dying in a military hospital, in the bed that gives this collection its title. She is not sorry. She has spent the occupation taking Prussian officers to her room one after another, knowing exactly what she was giving them, and she considers it service to France. When her old lover, an officer, finds her there and recoils, she tells him what she has done. He has nothing to say to it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat is Maupassant. Twenty-six stories here, most of them set in the Normandy he came from or in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War, and nearly all of them concerned with the small cruelties that ordinary people commit without much noticing. He was Flaubert's protégé and learned economy from him — no story here outstays its welcome, and several turn on a single sentence near the end that rearranges everything that came before it. He wrote around three hundred of them in a decade, along with six novels, and was dead at forty-two.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Folio Society edition of 1993, translated by Donald Adamson with sixteen drawings by Helen Smithson. Bound in full printed cloth in dark cream: a soldier drawing his sabre on the front board with a single tree on the horizon behind him, a woman standing on the spine, and on the rear board, a bed. Set in Scotch Roman and printed on Monument Wove paper. 221 pages, with the original brown slipcase.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCondition: Very good. The boards are clean and unmarked, the binding is tight and square, and the pages and plates are bright throughout with no foxing and no inscriptions. There is a mark to the cloth at the foot of the spine, which is not visible when the book is housed in its slipcase. The slipcase itself is sound and unsplit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFree UK delivery. Hand-packed in stiff card and packing paper, as everything here is.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56071144276353,"sku":"26-08-010","price":24.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/bed-29-and-other-stories-guy-de-maupassant-folio-society-1635381.jpg?v=1786617403"},{"product_id":"travels-with-a-donkey-cevennes-stevenson-folio-society","title":"Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes — R. L. Stevenson, Folio Society","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn September 1878 a young Scotsman set off into the Cévennes with a donkey he had just bought for sixty-five francs and a glass of brandy. He had no real idea what he was doing. Modestine would not walk at the pace he wanted, the pack kept sliding off her back, and it took him several days and the advice of an exasperated innkeeper before he worked out that she needed a goad rather than encouragement. Twelve days and a hundred and twenty miles later, he sold her and wept.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRobert Louis Stevenson was twenty-seven, unpublished in any serious sense, and in love with Fanny Osbourne — an American woman, ten years older, married, and by then back in California. He walked partly to think and partly to have something to write that might make him money and prove to his father he was not a wastrel. What came out of it was one of the first books to treat walking and sleeping out of doors as a pleasure rather than a hardship. He had a sleeping sack made to his own design for the journey, which makes him more or less the inventor of the sleeping bag.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is a funnier book than its reputation suggests. Stevenson is honest about being bad at this, about the donkey getting the better of him, about the monks at Our Lady of the Snows trying to convert him over supper. And then, without warning, he writes a passage about waking at night under the pines that is as good as anything he ever did.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Folio Society edition of 1967, first printing, with drawings by Edward Ardizzone — frontispiece and vignettes throughout, and a wraparound illustration of Stevenson hauling at Modestine on a hillside printed straight onto the cloth. Olive green lithographed cloth, gilt lettering to the spine, orange endpapers and orange top edge. 136 pages, with the original green slipcase.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCondition: Very good. The boards are clean with the illustration crisp, the binding tight and square, the gilt bright, and the pages clean throughout with no inscriptions. There is some fading to the spine, which is common to this edition and is not visible when the book is shelved in its slipcase. The slipcase is sound and unsplit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFree UK delivery. Hand-packed in stiff card and packing paper, as everything here is.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56097512620417,"sku":"26-08-011","price":35.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/travels-with-a-donkey-in-the-cevennes-r-l-stevenson-folio-society-6824595.jpg?v=1786698739"},{"product_id":"the-story-of-the-middle-ages-the-folio-society-southern-huizinga-moss-barraclough-mundy-1999-five-volume-set-in-slipcase-very-good","title":"The Story of the Middle Ages — The Folio Society | Southern, Huizinga, Moss, Barraclough \u0026 Mundy | 1999 | Five Volume Set in Slipcase | Very Good","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Middle Ages did not happen all at once, and this set has the good sense not to pretend otherwise.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRather than hand a thousand years to a single author, the Folio Society commissioned five, each a specialist in his own stretch of it. H. St. L. B. Moss opens with the collapse of Rome and the long uncertain dawn that followed. Geoffrey Barraclough, R. W. Southern and John H. Mundy carry the story through the centuries of consolidation and flowering. Johan Huizinga closes with the strange, gorgeous, exhausted world of the fifteenth century. Read end to end, the shifts in voice are part of the pleasure — five historians who do not entirely agree with one another, which is rather the point.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo of these are not merely good books but permanent ones. Southern's The Making of the Middle Ages, first published in 1953, remains on undergraduate reading lists seventy years on — a study of how medieval Europe came to think the way it did, written with a clarity that has never dated. Huizinga's The Waning of the Middle Ages, published in Dutch in 1919, is one of the founding works of cultural history: an account of the late medieval mind so vivid that historians still quarrel with it rather than ignore it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe production is the Folio Society doing what it does best. Five volumes in alternating red and green illustrated boards, each blocked in gilt with a flowing vine and foliage design, and each spine carrying a purple panel with its own gilt figure — a warrior, travellers with a camel, a seated scholar, a crowned king, and for Huizinga, Death himself with his scythe. The green slipcase repeats the vine motif in gilt beneath a purple band. Colour plates and black-and-white maps throughout, and around 1,600 pages in total.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCondition — Very Good. The books themselves are close to Fine and have clearly been shelved rather than read. Boards bright in both colours, gilt crisp and unrubbed, purple panels still strong. Most notably there is no fading to the spines at all, which is the first thing to go on this set and the thing worth looking for when comparing copies. Fore-edges clean. There is a small dark spot to the top edge of one volume and light dust-greying to another. The slipcase shows the honest wear of its years — light rubbing and bumping to the edges, with a small mark and a loose thread at the base — but is sound and square.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is the 1999 third printing, the set having first appeared in 1998. It is not a scarce thing, and we would not pretend otherwise — but well-kept copies with unfaded spines are a good deal less common than the listing counts suggest. A considerable amount of book, and it will look as well on the shelf as it reads in the hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eExtra photographs available on request. Just get in touch and we will be happy to help.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWrapped in good heavy paper — we don't skimp on that — and packed into a sturdy box so nothing shifts on the way to you, wherever in the world that happens to be. Kat packs and checks every parcel herself, and she is not easily pleased. The unwrapping ought to be half the pleasure.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56195607462273,"sku":"26-08-012","price":58.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/the-story-of-the-middle-ages-the-folio-society-southern-huizinga-moss-barraclough-mundy-1999-five-volume-set-in-slipcase-very-good-5816528.jpg?v=1789350991"},{"product_id":"cider-with-rosie-the-folio-society-laurie-lee-2003-slipcase-fine","title":"Cider with Rosie — The Folio Society | Laurie Lee | 2003 | Slipcase | Fine","description":"\u003cp\u003eA boy is set down in long grass on a June morning in 1918, and the grass is taller than he is, and that is where one of the finest English memoirs of the last century begins.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLaurie Lee wrote Cider with Rosie in 1959, looking back nearly forty years to a childhood in the Slad valley in Gloucestershire — a household of women, a village still lit by candles and drawn by horses, and a way of living that was already vanishing as he wrote about it. What lifts it above nostalgia is the prose. Lee was a poet first, and the book is full of sentences that stop you where you stand. It is also very funny, and every so often abruptly dark. The village he describes had murders in it as well as haymaking.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Folio Society edition brings the text together with an introduction by Valerie Grove, Lee's biographer, who knew the ground and the man well enough to place the book properly in his life. Peter Bailey supplies the illustrations — loose pen and watercolour work, done with a light hand, and a very good match for Lee's own way of catching a scene in a few strokes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eQuarter-bound in pale green-grey cloth with cream paper to the front board carrying a design in colour by Bailey, cream endleaves, and set in Walbaum type. It comes in the original dark blue slipcase with Bailey's harvest scene wrapping around it. Issued without a dust jacket, as all Folio Society volumes are. Second impression of the 2003 setting.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCondition is Fine, book and slipcase alike. No fading to the spine, which is the usual complaint with Folio volumes of this age and worth stating plainly. The spine lettering is crisp and unrubbed, the boards are clean and square, the binding is tight, and the page block is bright with no spotting. No inscriptions, names or bookplates. The slipcase is unrubbed at the edges with no bumping to the corners and no sunning to the rear panel. It has clearly lived on a shelf and been read carefully, or barely read at all.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is not a scarce book and we would not pretend otherwise — Folio kept it in print for years. What is less common is finding one in this state, with the slipcase undamaged and the spine untouched by light. It is the copy you buy if you want the book on the shelf looking as it did when it left Wellington Street, and it is a genuinely lovely thing to hand to someone who has only ever read Lee in paperback.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eExtra photographs available on request. Just get in touch and we will be happy to help.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWrapped in good heavy paper — we don't skimp on that — and packed into a sturdy box so nothing shifts on the way to you, wherever in the world that happens to be. Kat packs and checks every parcel herself, and she is not easily pleased. The unwrapping ought to be half the pleasure.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56207167717761,"sku":"26-09-001","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/cider-with-rosie-the-folio-society-laurie-lee-2003-slipcase-fine-3005761.jpg?v=1789350979"},{"product_id":"folio-society-greek-myths-robert-graves-2002-2-volume-set","title":"The Greek Myths — The Folio Society | Robert Graves | 2002 | 2 Volume Set | Very Good","description":"\u003cp\u003eRobert Graves spent a lifetime insisting that the Greek myths were not decoration. They were evidence — of older religions, displaced goddesses, and rituals half-remembered by the poets who wrote them down.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFirst published in 1955 and revised in 1960, The Greek Myths is the book that sent generations of readers back to the sources. Graves gathers the myths in full, cross-references the variants that ancient authors disagreed about, and then supplies his own commentary — bold, argumentative and frequently disputed by classicists ever since. You do not have to accept his conclusions to find the book indispensable. It remains the most complete single gathering of the myths in English, and the commentary is where the pleasure lies: Graves arguing with Homer, with Apollodorus, and with anyone who thinks a myth is only a story.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKenneth McLeish provides the introduction to this edition, setting Graves's method in context for readers coming to him fresh. Grahame Baker's illustrations draw directly on the visual language of Attic vase painting — black figures against terracotta grounds — and Denys Baker drew the maps. The text follows Graves's revised 1960 edition, with his source notes omitted.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo volumes, 700 pages in all, quarter-bound in brown buckram with paper sides printed with a design by Grahame Baker, gilt lettering and Greek-key rules to the spines, and illustrated map endpapers. Set in Ehrhardt with Lithos display, printed on Caxton Wove by Grafos of Barcelona. Both volumes house in the original terracotta slipcase with its gilt Greek-key border. First Folio Society edition 1996; this is the thirteenth printing of 2002, the two-volume format.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCondition is Very Good. Both volumes carry a gift inscription in ink to the front free endpaper, dated 25 December 2004, from a mother to her daughter — neat, unobtrusive and in the same hand across both volumes, which is how we know the set has stayed together since the Christmas morning it was given. Beyond that the text is entirely unmarked. Pages are clean and bright, bindings are firm and square, the gilt is unrubbed and the printed sides are fresh. The slipcase is sound and holds both volumes properly, with only light handling wear.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFolio issued this set many times over a decade, so it is not a scarce book — we would rather say so than pretend otherwise. What is less common is finding both volumes together with the original slipcase intact, since slipcases are what get thrown away first and single volumes turn up orphaned all the time. Complete, matched, and with a small piece of its own history written into the front of each volume, this is a set to read from rather than to keep sealed away.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eExtra photographs available on request. Just get in touch and we will be happy to help.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWrapped in good heavy paper — we don't skimp on that — and packed into a sturdy box so nothing shifts on the way to you, wherever in the world that happens to be. Kat packs and checks every parcel herself, and she is not easily pleased. The unwrapping ought to be half the pleasure.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56207359803777,"sku":"26-09-002","price":26.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/the-greek-myths-the-folio-society-robert-graves-2002-2-volume-set-very-good-6389214.jpg?v=1789350980"},{"product_id":"folio-society-life-mozart-edward-holmes-1991-first-edition","title":"The Life of Mozart — The Folio Society | Edward Holmes | 1991 | First Edition | Fine","description":"\u003cp\u003eEdward Holmes knew people who had known Mozart. That is the whole of why this book still matters.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHolmes was a working music critic in the 1840s, a friend of Vincent Novello, and he wrote this life in 1845 while the memory of Mozart was still held in living hands rather than archives. He had travelled the same roads, spoken to those who had heard the man play, and worked from the correspondence when the letters were fresh evidence rather than scholarly furniture. It was the first substantial English life of Mozart, and it reads like a book written by someone in pursuit of a subject rather than someone assembling a monument.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat lifts this edition above a reprint of a Victorian curiosity is the editor. Christopher Hogwood — founder of the Academy of Ancient Music, and as fluent in the primary sources as any musicologist of his generation — edited the text, wrote the introduction and supplied additional notes. He corrects Holmes where the nineteenth century got it wrong and lets him run where he got it right. The result is a book you can trust and still enjoy, which is a rarer combination in music biography than it ought to be.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBlue cloth boards with the Mozart silhouette debossed in crimson within a gilt cartouche to the front, red cloth spine with gilt lettering, pictorial musical-score endpapers and a red top stain to the text block. In the original red slipcase with gilt lettering and fleur-de-lis ornaments. Illustrated throughout with portraits, a map and music examples, with 23 plates. xxxi and 318 pages, with index. First Folio Society edition, 1991.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCondition is Fine. The red spine has no fading or dulling whatsoever, which is worth stating plainly: fading to the spine is the fault this title almost always carries, and copies described as near fine routinely have it. The blue cloth of the boards is clean and unspotted — the other common complaint, since blue cloth marks readily. The bottom page edges are clean and unstained, the text block is bright, the binding tight and square, and the gilt is unrubbed. No inscriptions, names or bookplates. The slipcase is bright and sound, without wrinkling to the panels.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFolio's early nineties production was excellent and this is a good example of it — proper cloth, a debossed and gilded front board rather than a printed one, and endpapers set with music. Combine that with a first printing and a copy that has escaped the usual spine fading, and you have a considerably better than average survival of a book that most collectors of Mozart end up wanting on the shelf sooner or later.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eExtra photographs available on request. Just get in touch and we will be happy to help.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWrapped in good heavy paper — we don't skimp on that — and packed into a sturdy box so nothing shifts on the way to you, wherever in the world that happens to be. Kat packs and checks every parcel herself, and she is not easily pleased. The unwrapping ought to be half the pleasure.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56207523709313,"sku":"26-09-003","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/the-life-of-mozart-the-folio-society-edward-holmes-1991-first-edition-fine-4746299.jpg?v=1789350975"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/collections\/books-4065534.jpg?v=1778402534","url":"https:\/\/www.novelrelics.co.uk\/collections\/books.oembed?page=3","provider":"Novel Relics","version":"1.0","type":"link"}