THE RIVER AND THE DOWNS, Kent's Unsung Corner.

First edition, first printing. Signed by the author. Inscribed presentation copy. Publisher's original brown cloth with titles in gilt to the spine, in dustwrapper. Illustrated with 29 black and white photographs by Gillian Beale. A near fine copy, the binding square and firm, with some bumping at the head of the spine, the cloth bright and fresh. The contents are clean throughout. Complete with the lightly rubbed and creased dustwrapper that is without fading, loss or tears. Not price-clipped (£12.95 net to the front flap).

Inscribed by the author in blue ink on the front endpaper "Frank, / a gift off the cush, but yours / just the same - / Michael". Michael Baldwin (1930-2014) award winning novelist, poet, broadcaster, writing tutor and founder and chair of the Arvon Foundation. The recipient is Frank Pike, an editor at Faber, who over four decades, from the 1960s, onwards was responsible for the Faber drama list, recruiting Tom Stoppard, Simon Gray, Brian Friel, Sam Shepard, and Alan Bennett, among others, as well as working closely with authors already publishing with the firm, notably Samuel Beckett.