A SCATTERING

First edition, first printing. Signed by the author. Inscribed presentation copy. Publisher's original plain yellow card covers, with integral blue card dustwrapper with titles in red and orange to the upper cover, and white and orange to the spine. A very good copy, the binding square and firm with some rubbing to the wrapper folds. The contents are clean throughout. Not price-clipped (£7.99 on rear flap). Loosely laid in is the publisher's prospectus and order form.

Inscribed by the author in blue pencil on the title page "For Frank - / Love from / Christopher". The recipient is Frank Pike, 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. This soulful poetry collection was a tribute to the poet's late wife, actress Lucinda Gane (1949 - 2005). The volume consists of four poetic sequences, the first, 'The Flowers of Crete', was written during Gane's final illness, and the other three, 'The Unfinished', 'The Widower's Dozen', and 'Lucinda's Way', were written in intervals after her death. Reid went on to win the 2009 Costa Book Award for the Poetry category for this collection.