THE GRAIN KINGS

First edition, first printing. With a card signed by the author loosely laid in. Original ochre paper-covered boards with gilt titles to the spine, in the Chris Foss illustrated dustwrapper. A near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the spine tips with the slightest bumping. The contents, with some light spotting to the closed text-block edge and slight offsetting to the endpapers, are otherwise clean and without previous owners' inscriptions or stamps. Complete with the lightly rubbed, nicked and creased original dustwrapper that is a touch faded to the spine and otherwise without loss or tears. Not price-clipped (£3.95 on the front flap).

Containing a loosely laid in Christmas card inscribed on the front by Keith Roberts "To Brian and Family, / wishing you a happy Christmas, and / a peaceful New Year. / 1989". A small print of an illustration by Roberts depicting Silke Bischoff, a teenager that was killed during the 1988 Gladbeck hostage crisis in West Germany, is tipped in inside the card. The recipient is the award-winning science fiction writer, scholar and critic Brian Stableford. A collection of seven short science fiction and fantasy stories dealing with parallel worlds.