Master by Gilbert Harding (6 results)

Condition: Good. 1958. 2nd Impression. 176 pages. Pictorial dust jacket over black cloth. Contains black and white photographic plates. Pages and binding are presentable with no major defects. Minor issues present such as mild cracking, inscriptions, inserts, light foxing, tanning and thumb marking. Overall a good condition item. Boards have mild shelf wear with light rubbing and corner bumping. Some light marking and sunning. Unclipped jacket has heavy edgewear with areas of loss, heavy tears, chips, and creasing. Pencil inscription to front flap. Wear marks overall.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. Second impression. Light wear to boards. Content is clean and bright. DJ with some edge wear, tears and loss.

Hardback. Condition: Good. There are books written by experts, books written by specialists, and then there is Master of None (1958) by Gilbert Harding, which wears its title like a badge of honour and invites you to consider that knowing a bit about everything might, in fact, be far more entertaining. Harding himself was something of a character?broadcaster, panel-show regular, professional contrarian, and a man whose opinions tended to arrive unfiltered and stay that way. This book reflects exactly that. It is not a tightly focused treatise, nor does it pretend to be. Instead, it wanders, observes, comments, and occasionally prods at the world with a mixture of wit, irritation, and reluctant affection. If you are expecting a neat argument with a tidy conclusion, you may find yourself gently disappointed. If, on the other hand, you enjoy a sharp mind ranging freely across its subject matter, you are very much in the right place. There is a distinctly mid-20th-century flavour to the whole thing: dry humour, confident prose, and the sense that the author is perfectly happy to assume you can keep up. Harding does not labour his points, nor does he dilute them. He simply presents them, often with a raised eyebrow, and moves on. It is the literary equivalent of a well-aimed remark delivered across a room?brief, pointed, and not especially concerned with whether it has been universally approved. This 1958 Putnam edition carries all that along in a straightforward, no-nonsense format. It is a book that looks as though it has been read rather than curated, which is exactly as it should be. Condition-wise, this is a good copy as sold by Crappy Old Books. It shows the expected signs of age and handling, but remains entirely solid and readable, with the sort of quiet resilience that suggests it has been through a few conversations of its own. In short, Master of None is less a manual and more a companionable ramble in the company of someone who has seen a good deal, thought about it, and decided to share the results without too much polishing. A pleasingly idiosyncratic volume for readers who prefer their books opinionated, their humour dry, and their authors unafraid to admit that expertise is sometimes overrated.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 2nd Impression. 176 pages. Black/white photos. A firm, straight book, in a price clipped dust jacket. Scan available.

Hard Back. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. First Edition. Book has black boards with gilt lettering to spine. Light bumping to corners and spine ends. Some damp marking to page ends, and a bit of damp marking to edges of feps. Wrapper has general wear with rubbing and grazing to edges and hinges, and some grazing to face of front of wrapper. Some general discolouration to rear of wrapper. Some damp marking corresponding to feps. Signed on fep. Signed by Author.

First edition, second impression. Inscribed by the author, to Viscount Maugham. Dust jacket not price clipped. Pages age tanned and some mild foxing to some of the pages only. Black and white photos throughout Good.