The scarce first issue with the wrapper

Nichols, Beverley ~ Women and Children Last

First UK Printing : Jonathan Cape, London : 1931

8vo., red-orange cloth with painted black label gilt to spine; publisher’s device embossed in blind to lower board; in the original unclipped wrapper (7s. 6d. net); The BOOK with light spotting to the prelims and edges; faint offsetting to endpapers; some very superficial scratches to front endpapers; else a Very Good++ copy; the WRAPPER also Very Good+, some even shelf wear, age related markings and toning, most so to the spine; rubbed along spine folds; with some light nicking to the upper edge. Provenance: Ex Libris of Colin Crole, with his bookplate to the front free endpaper. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. The scarce first UK printing with the elusive wrapper. A collection of sketches from the author of ‘Down the Garden Path’, divided into four parts (‘More or Less Fiction’, ‘Journalese’, ‘Mainly about Women’ and ‘Children’s Corner’), where women form the butt of his wit. The title of the collection was inspired by a particular vehement letter received by him from a group of girls who wrote: “You are a bum, and would probably let a woman drown if you were on a ship and it was going down”. In the controversial Forward, he presses his response: “women, if they claim equal rights with men, must also claim equal responsibilities”, he writes. “Women should join their countries' armies in war-time, and fight and be killed”. “If women insist upon demanding equality”, he concludes, “they should have equality of criticism, and in this book they get it”. Beverley Nichols is perhaps best remembered today for his contributions to Woman's Own magazine (1946–1967).

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good++
JACKET: Very Good+