Books

Light scattered spotting to first and last few pages else VG in contemporary blue half morocco with five raised bands to the spine which is lightly faded in blue goatskin slipcase with suede lining by Ludlow Bookbinders. A wonderful association copy of Gibbon's satiric rural novel. Specially bound for Gibbon while her late husband Allan Webb was a member of the Book Collector's Club. The first inscription is to Allan, and another later inscription accompanies a sketch by Francis Marshall (1901-1980, fashion illustrator and dust-jacket designer), "I saw and liked his jacket for Barbara Cartland's 'We Danced All Night,' & he sent me the rough sketch for it when I wrote offering to buy the original. When I wrote sending him an annotated copy of CCF he sent me this drawing in return, I'd said he probably wasn't old enough to remember Fanny Ward". Marshall was a renowned fashion illustrator in his own right, and his sketch of Fanny Ward - a contemporary American actress - probably references the various mentions of her in the novel. The three dated notations from 1932, 1972, and 1985 attest to this well-loved and often re-visited copy belonging to the author of this classic Novel.

Cold Comfort Farm is a comic novel by English author Stella Gibbons, published in 1932. The book parodies the romanticized, sometimes doom-laden accounts of rural life popularized by authors such as Mary Webb.