THE LAST OF ENGLAND (First edition - first printing)

A first printing of the true first edition, published in 1992, with 'First published 1992' on the printer's page, with no mention of any other printings. ***A near fine copy in black cloth-covered boards with gilt titles to the spine. The boards are clean and unmarked. No bumps or creases. Corner tips sharp. No reading lean to the binding. Spine tight. Page block edges clean - just slightly foxed at the top edge. No foxing. Internally also near fine, with no written inscriptions, but with a small ownership stamp on the front free endpaper and a 'Readers Rest, Lincoln' bookseller's label on the front pastedown. The pages are clean with no foxing or annotations - just very slightly tanned. No creases or tears. Printed on thick quality paper. ***In a near fined colour-illustrated dustwrapper, which has not been price-clipped, retaining the original publisher's printed price of £13.99 net. The dustwrapper is complete with no discernible faults. No creasing, chips or tears. No fading. Dustwrapper bright. ***223mm x 145mm. 183 pages. ***'"I have tried to render this scene as it would appear" wrote Ford Madox Brown of his painting The Last of England. Ted Walker shows the same fearless honesty in this autobiographical love story, set in England and Spain. He tells of his wife's long fatal illness and of his own struggle towards accepting how much of himself is lost in losing her. Ted Walker writes with the sensitivity of a poet, evoking an England constantly changing. His tone is both matter-of-fact in detail and lyrical in spirit and it is this combination that makes such an unusual and vivid testimony.' (Quote taken from the front flap of the dustwrapper) ***'Edward Joseph (Ted) Walker FRSL (28 Nov 1934 - 19 Mar 2004) was a prize-winning English poet, short story writer, travel writer, TV and radio dramatist and broadcaster. In the early 1960s he started to write poetry regularly and of a quality that made it welcome in journals such as The Listener, The Observer, the Times Literary Supplement and the London Magazine. It drew the attention of William Plomer, then poetry editor at Jonathan Cape and a powerful figure in the poetry world. Walker had also submitted poems to The New Yorker, where Howard Moss made his work welcome. The fee which Walker received for his first poem to be published in The New Yorker, "Breakwaters" (published June 1963) helped him to move back to his native Sussex. Looking for a new source of income, Walker taught himself the art of short story writing, and his first short story, "Estuary", appeared in The New Yorker in April 1964. Walker's first book of verse, "Fox on a Barn Door," focused on the Sussex countryside and coast. The titles of a good third of the poems – such as "Breakwaters", "The Skate Fishers" and "On the Sea Wall" are about the shoreline of Lancing and Shoreham. The South Downs likewise provided inspiration.' (Wiki) ***A first printing of the true first edition, in its original dustwrapper, in near fine condition. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc. …