WESTERBY, Robert. An Awful Lot of Coffee. London: Arthur Barker. 1950. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s red cloth lettered in black to the spine, in the wraparound dust jacket that appears to be uncredited, but is in the style of Ardizzone’s usual work. A very good copy overall. The cloth clean and very bright, the binding tight and square. The contents clean, some light toning to endpapers, else clean. The dust jacket complete, slightly toned at the backstrip, the joints and corners rubbed and slightly nicked, with red bleed to the front panel and flap joint. A few small closed tears and one larger closed tear to rear panel upper edge, made discreet by the jacket design. A handsome copy overall.
An uncommon middle-career novel by the London author best known for his almost-canonical Wide Boys Never Work (1937), a gritty portrayal of London’s true underworld. This novel follows a group of filmmakers intent on producing a film in Brazil, but the Amazonian heat leads to tension among the group. The plot is likely based on the development of Westerby’s own career—by the time of publication, he’d spent numerous years working as a writer for film, his proudest credit screenwriter for King Vidor’s War and Peace (1957).
WESTERBY, Robert. An Awful Lot of Coffee. London: Arthur Barker. 1950. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s red cloth lettered in black to the spine, in the wraparound dust jacket that appears to be uncredited, but is in the style of Ardizzone’s usual work. A very good copy overall. The cloth clean and very bright, the binding tight and square. The contents clean, some light toning to endpapers, else clean. The dust jacket complete, slightly toned at the backstrip, the joints and corners rubbed and slightly nicked, with red bleed to the front panel and flap joint. A few small closed tears and one larger closed tear to rear panel upper edge, made discreet by the jacket design. A handsome copy overall.
An uncommon middle-career novel by the London author best known for his almost-canonical Wide Boys Never Work (1937), a gritty portrayal of London’s true underworld. This novel follows a group of filmmakers intent on producing a film in Brazil, but the Amazonian heat leads to tension among the group. The plot is likely based on the development of Westerby’s own career—by the time of publication, he’d spent numerous years working as a writer for film, his proudest credit screenwriter for King Vidor’s War and Peace (1957).
