Love and Marriage: Three Stories (Ralph Steadman) (Signed) (1965)

The publication of The Young Visitors in 1919 made Daisy Ashford famous, but it is not so well known that she wrote various short stories between the ages of seven and fifteen. Like the longer work they deal with love and marriage and the social foibles of the adult world, and they are written with the same charm and mordant perception. Here are two of the most attractive, together with a story from the same period by her sister Angela (from which it is plain that Daisy was not the only member of the Ashford family with a keen eye and a sharp pencil). The Ashford sisters were extraordinary children and the particular flavour of these stories is impossible to describe, but at any level they are sheer delight to read. Open this book anywhere and try. Ralph Steadman, whose cartoons appear regularly in Punch and Private Eye and who has illustrated several children’s books, has done a series of drawings that catch the spirit of the stories and re-create their period with uncanny aptness. 19x13cm. Brown cloth with gilt titling to spine. In original dust-wrapper. Signed and inscribed by Steadman on title page. Condition: dust-wrapper price clipped, slightly sunned to spine with a small 1inch tear to base of spine.