Welcome to Neil Pearson Rare Books

Neil Pearson has collected rare books for thirty years: his specialism is nineteenth and twentieth century first edition literature, with a particular interest in the expatriate literary movement of Paris between the wars. He is the author of Obelisk (Liverpool University Press, 2007), a history of the notorious Paris imprint which in the 1930s published the early work of, among others, Henry Miller, Laurence Durrell and Anaïs Nin. In 2011 he researched, compiled and wrote They Were What They Were: A Catalogue of Early Gay Fiction, 1862 -1960. More information about both of these titles can be found here.

After buying books for so many years, he is delighted finally to be selling some.

News For May

Two Pythons Before Python; The Two Ronnies Before The Two Ronnies

This month we are delighted to offer a unique collection of early comedy material written by Terry Jones and Michael Palin: original, printed and photocopied typescripts, most with their handwritten corrections, cuts and rewrites. The collection includes sketches, quickies, short films and monologues, and much of it was written especially for Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett to perform. The material was produced for The Frost Report and Frost on Sunday, and dates from 1967-8 -- just before the launch of Monty Python's Flying Circus in 1969. For a detailed, illustrated description of the archive, click here.

More Goon Show scripts...

Most of the original Goon Show scripts offered in our recent catalogue have now been sold (those which remain are listed in the Performing Arts section). But if you were beaten to the punch when the catalogue first came out, help is at hand. Through the rest of May we will be listing for sale more original Goon Show scripts, many of them with notes, deletions and amendments made during the recording of the shows themselves. This will be good news for members of The Goon Show Appreciation Society, whose newsletter's publication deadline meant that many of its members only found out about our catalogue when much of the material had already been sold. The most recent issue of the GSAS newsletter carries a flatteringly enthusiastic piece about the Goon Show material we have on offer, and in the spirit of mutually advantageous backscratching we are delighted to be able to introduce interested readers to the Society at www.thegoonshow.org.uk.

Welcome, and Happy Browsing.

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