John Mortimer - Charade - SIGNED 1st / 1st - Hbk Dw 1947 - Rare First Novel

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John Mortimer - Charade - SIGNED 1st / 1st - Hbk Dw 1947 - Rare First Novel :
$168.62

CharadeByJohn Mortimer
The Bodley HeadLondon1947First Edition - First Impression
Near Fine / Very GoodOriginal publisher\'s yellow cloth, spine lettered in blue.188pp.A Near Fine copy, top edge a little dusty, internally nice and clean, binding tight and square.In Very Good, original dust-wrapper, not price-clipped, that has a few closed tears to top of spine, front bottom corner, and to top edge front and rear, a little internally tape reinforced. Now in removable, clear protective cover
Paper slip SIGNED by John Mortimer loosely laid in.
Very Rare First Edition, First Printing in original dust-wrapper of John Mortimer\'s first novel with author\'s signature laid in.Charade:June 1944, in an English seaside resort and a shy young man has just joined an army film unit making a documentary about army training. While shooting a cliff-scaling exercise a sergeant plunges to his death. It seems like an accident, but the shy young man is not convinced.
Sir John Clifford Mortimer (21 April 1923 – 16 January 2009) was an English barrister, dramatist, screenwriter, and author.Having been called to the Bar in 1948 aged 25, and taking silk in 1966, the highlights of his legal career included: successfully representing publishers John Calder and Marion Boyars in their 1968 appeal against conviction for publishing Hubert Selby, Jr.\'s Last Exit to Brooklyn; acting as defence counsel in the Oz Magazine conspiracy trial in 1971; and defending Virgin Records in the 1977 obscenity hearing for their use of the word bollocks in the title of the Sex Pistols album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here\'s the Sex Pistols.John Mortimer\'s literary career began with the publication of Charade in 1947. This first novel was influenced by his experiences with the Crown Film Unit during World War II. Mortimer was classified as medically unfit for military service with weak eyes and doubtful lungs and worked for the Unit, under Laurie Lee, writing scripts for propaganda documentaries.Mortimer would go on to produce the hugely successful series of books featuring the enduring character of Horace Rumpole - the brilliant, inexpensive cigar smoking, cheap red wine drinking, and steak and kidney pudding eating barrister.John Mortimer was knighted in 1998.Thanks for looking and feel free to contact me if you have any questions