AN ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF MYSELF.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,illustrated,1st edn. [Complete number line 1.] FINE/FINE. No owner inscrptn and no price-clip to dw/dj.Bright,crisp,clean,matt,off-white background with author's capitalised,matt red-lettered name and capitalised,matt,black-lettered title to front of dw/dj,and subject's 3 thumbnail b/w contemporary photographs over the dw/dj; spine/backstrip with subject b/w thumbnail photograph and similarly coloured+lettered author name+title as the front's and publisher's redcolour illustration to head of same and similarly coloured+lettered part-title and author's name as the front's and publisher's white+red illustrated name and colophon to foot of same,rear panel of dw/dj with another thumbnail subject photograph and 5 critics' black+red lettered reviews. Negligible shelf-wear to edges and corners – no tears or splits present.Top+fore-edges bright crisp and clean without foxing/spotting; contents bright, tight,clean,solid and sound – no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corner tips – appears unread, apart from my own collation.Publisher's bright,crisp and clean/unblemished,sharp-cornered,original plain red cloth boards with bright,crisp,blocked capitalised, black-lettered spine/backstrip,a red+white striped headband and immaculate plain red endpapers.UK, 8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,1-341pp [paginated] includes 20+ contemporary familial,autobiographical b/w thumbnail photographs interspersed throughout the text and the book; plus [unpaginated]half-title+title pages,a dedication with b/w portrait photograph of his mother to it's reverse,a b/w portrait photograph of his father and to the rear,an Illustrations (photographs) list. Visually the exterior appearance is exceptional and particularly internally,is also in an exceptional condition/state of preservation and presentation for a book of its 10-year-old age. It really is an exemplary example for its cleanliness,brightness and lack of detracting faults. The 1950s were not grey.In Jonathan Meade's detailed,petit-point memoir they are luridly polychromatic.They were peopled by embittered grotesques,bogus majors,vicious spinsters,reckless bohos,pompous boors,drunks,suicides.Death went dogging everywhere.Salisbury,where he was brought up,had two industries: God and the Cold War,both of which provided a cast of adults for the child to scrutinise - dessicated god-botherers on the one hand,gung-ho chemical wariiors on the other.The child - forever longing for the world to change and newness to at last arrive - finds means to rpel the potentional boredom of his circumscribed life.He takes a delight in the intense observation of adult frailties.He relishes landscapes and prepubscent sex.He is obsessed by calligraphy and rivers. As 'An Encyclopaedia of Myself' reveals,the child Meades was father to a writer whose memory is as prodigious as its promiscuous.This memoir is an engrossing portrait of a disappeared provincial England,a time and place unpeeled with gruesome relish. Please contact seller,for correct shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas customers - BEFORE ordering through the order page! N.B. ALL buyers please note,stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch,especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE. ** N.B. US/Canada customers please be aware: Standard AIRMAIL postage from UK to these destinations can now cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence,then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard US AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always. **