London: Secker & Warburg, 1984

8vo, pp. 292. Original black boards, lettered in gilt to spine. Illustrated dust jacket, author's photographic portrait to rear flap. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket.

First edition, INSCRIBED BY DUNNE TO HIS LITERARY EDITOR JOHN BLACKWELL: 'To John, the real-ale guru, with many thanks, Colin D.'.

John Blackwell [1937-1997] joined Secker and Warburg in the late 1960s, when the imprint was still an independent company run by Fredric Warburg himself. He was a constant presence through the company's innumerable corporate takeovers, mergers and changes of managing director. He was Tom Sharpe's editor, and was literary midwife to J. M. Coetzee, Michael Moorcock, John Banville, Tom McGuane, Malcolm Bradbury and Louis de Bernieres, among many others.