THOSE WERE THE DAYS: Panorama with Figures

First edition, first printing. Inscribed association copy. Original green cloth with black over gilt and gilt over black lettering to the spine, in the John Farleigh illustrated dustwrapper. A very near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the cloth and gilt bright and clean, the contents clean throughout. Minor pushing to spine tips and a small knock to the outer upper corner of the front panel. The dustwrapper, rubbed to folds and extremities, with a few nicks and tears to corners, presents very well indeed. The mildly faded spine panel shows an area of loss (around an inch at its deepest) at its head which cuts out the first two words of the title. An attractive copy, warmly inscribed to the author's long-standing housekeeper.

Inscribed in black ink to the front free endpaper, "For / dear Miss Noble, / with affection / from / Osbert Sitwell / March 7 1938". Philip Ziegler, in his 1998 biography of Sitwell, notes that Miss Noble took over as housekeeper from Mrs Powell, the previous incumbent, around 1930. She clearly became something like a member of the family over the years until, in 1963 when, as Ziegler has it "she was now over eighty and could never remember what day it was and who, if anyone, was coming for lunch or dinner. She was also parsimonious on Osbert's behalf, and was apt to expect to find 1914 prices still ruling in the butcher's or the baker's, would often return empty-handed from a shopping expedition. It was partly the impossibility of getting rid of this loved, loyal but embarrassingly inefficient retainer which convinced Osbert that it was time to leave Carlyle Square [for a flat in Kensington Church Street]". 'Those Were the Days' was published on 1 March 1938 (a few days before the dedication). 5000 copies were printed. (Philip Ziegler, 'Osbert Sitwell' [London: 1998]; Fifoot OA27).