THE SILVER CITADEL

First edition, first printing. Inscribed presentation copy. Publisher's original black cloth with silver titles to the spine, in the Fred Gambino illustrated dustwrapper. A very good copy, the binding square and firm, the text block toned due to the poor quality paper used in production are otherwise clean throughout. Complete with the lightly rubbed and creased dustwrapper. Not price-clipped (£7.95 net to the front flap).

Inscribed by the author in blue ink on the front endpaper "For dear Ma, / Christmas 1986 / With my love, as ever / Anthony / 25.12.86". The third adventure of The Pentagram chronicles. An important presentation copy from the author to his beloved mother. Horowitz has made no secret of the fact that his wealthy but largely unhappy and brutal childhood compelled him to write for children as it allowed him to relive the formative years he never had. His father, a businessman and political fixer, who despite a love of literature and assembling an extensive library himself, ridiculed the commercial viability of his son's desire to become a writer. Sadly he died [and with him the whereabouts of the family fortune, never to be recovered] the year before his son's first book was accepted for publication. Horowitz describes his mother as an extraordinary woman whom he adored, encouraging his interest in reading and writing, and in his teens introducing him to classic horror novels such as Bram Stoker's Dracula and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The bestselling author has gone on to become one of the UK's most successful and sought after genre novelists and screenwriters creating new adventures for Ian Fleming's James Bond, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and writing for Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot!