RONALD FIRBANK

RONALD FIRBANK 

One Hundred Items from the Collection of Robert Scoble 

CALLUM JAMES BOOKS 

May 2016


and six other writers 

deprecated by 

unimaginative 

people 

One Hundred Items from the Collection of Robert Scoble


and six other writers 

deprecated by 

unimaginative people 

One Hundred Items 

from the Collection of 

Robert Scoble 

Offered for sale 

by Callum James Books 

in 

May 2016

This catalogue was published online in May 2016. 

At the same time, as a tangible record of Dr Scoble’s 

collection, and as a contribution to bibliography, 

a limited edition of 40 copies of this catalogue has 

been printed and signed by the collector and publisher 

This is number: 

To 

Firbank’s champions 

Carl Van Vechten 

Edmund Wilson 

Anthony Powell 

Robert Murray Davis 

Brigid Brophy 

Steven Moore 

Miriam Benkovitz 

John Byrne 

Barry Humphries 

Alan Hollinghurst 

Richard Canning 

Callum James Books 

31A Chichester Road 

Portsmouth 

UK - PO2 0AA 

+44 (0)2392 696150 

callum@callumjamesbooks.com 

Front Free Endpaper Blog: 

callumjames.blogspot.com 

Website: www.callumjamesbooks.com 

Twitter: @CallumJBooks 

Cover illustration: Michel Sevier illustration for 

Firbank’s Princess Zoubiroff 

Text and images 

© Callum James Books/Robert Scoble 2016 

PURCHASES 

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an old-fashioned cheque - as long as it is in 

Sterling and drawn on a UK bank - or bank 

details for an electronic transfer. 

Photographs in this catalogue are not to the 

same scale.

This catalogue lists one hundred items 

from the collection put together by 

Dr Robert Scoble over the past four decades 

Among its scarce items: 

A copy in rose covers of Ronald Firbank’s first 

publication Odette, with a rare Laurencin bookplate 

A copy of Santal 

inscribed and dated by Firbank 

First editions of all 

Lord Berners’s novels 

A dustjacketed copy of Richard Rumbold’s 

exceptionally scarce novel Little Victims 

A dustjacketed copy of Gerald Hamilton’s elusive 

autobiography As Young As Sophocles, inscribed by Hamilton 

Fine sets of Simon Raven’s two novel sequences 

Arms for Oblivion and The First Born of Egypt 

An attractive copy of the first French edition of 

Roger Peyrefitte’s novel Les Amitiés Particulières 

with a contemporary inscription by Peyrefitte

PART 1 


(1886-1926)

1. FIRBANK, Arthur Annesley Ronald 

Odette d’Antrevernes and A Study in Temperament 

1905 

Elkin Mathews. FIRST EDITION. One of 500 copies, this copy in rose stiff paper covers 

lettered in blue on the upper cover. Some copies were printed in sea-green stiff paper 

covers, but no priority has been established between the two colours. Many of the book’s 

gatherings are uncut. Near fine, with a very slightly embrowned backstrip. Benkovitz A1. 

Tipped onto the inside upper cover is the bookplate, in pristine condition, of Edward 

Wassermann, the American bibliophile, art collector and author of the eccentric travel 

book, Velvet Voyaging (1940). Original copies of this bookplate are scarce and much 

sought after by collectors, as it is the only known bookplate designed by the French 

artist Marie Laurencin (1883-1956), an important figure in the Parisian avant garde. 

Wassermann was in her Paris studio and saw her working on an engraving of a girl 

wearing a pearl necklace. He asked whether she could make him a personalised bookplate 

out of it and she agreed. 

10 

£300

2. FIRBANK, Ronald 

Vainglory 

1915 

Grant Richards. FIRST EDITION. One of 500 copies. Bright, near fine copy ‒ a few 

spots of foxing on the outer edge ‒ in a largely intact but soiled dustjacket, chipped at the 

extremities and with a restored tear on the upper cover. Colour frontispiece by Felicien 

Rops. This copy with the publisher’s catalogue advising that ‘Mr Firbank is a new writer; 

he is very “modern”.’ Benkovitz A2a. 

‘There was a pause ‒ just long enough for an angel to pass, flying slowly’. 

£280 

11


Vainglory 

1925 

Brentano’s. FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. Frontispiece by Felicien Rops. Fine copy 

in a very good dustjacket designed by Joseph Fannell. The dustjacket is chipped at the 

extremities and its backstrip is worn and rubbed with one significant closed tear. Benkovitz 

A2b. 

‘She could admire a distant view of a cold stone church by Vanbrugh. Flushed at sunset, it 

suggested quite forcibly a middle-aged bachelor with possessions at Coutts’. 

12 

£100


Inclinations 

1916 

Grant Richards. FIRST EDITION. One of 500 copies. Firbank’s name is ‘A. A. R. 

Firbank’ on the backstrip and ‘Ronald Firbank’ elsewhere. The artist Albert Rutherston, 

who has contributed two drawings, had recently changed his name, and appears as ‘Albert 

Rutherston (Rothenstein)’ on the title page. Very good, with small pieces missing from 

the top corner of four leaves, a faint red mark at the foot of the lower board, and rubbing 

at both ends of the spine and other extremities. There is a small, unobtrusive bookseller’s 

label at the foot of the back pastedown endpaper. This copy lacks the protective tissue 

guard on the frontispiece. The dustjacket has some light chipping and fraying along the 

head and the foot, and two large chips at the head of the lower panel. Nevertheless an 

attractive copy of a book and dustjacket of which there have been very few survivors. 

Benkovitz A3. 

‘As course succeeded course came the recurring pressure of a forward footman’s knee’. 

£220 

13


Odette: A Fairy Tale for Weary People 

1916 

Grant Richards. FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION. One of 2,000 copies. Frontispiece 

and three full-page illustrations by Albert Buhrer (1891-1991), who later changed his name 

to Adrian Bury. This is a fair copy only, the backstrip embrowned and badly chipped and 

the upper panel having separated altogether. The front free endpaper is INSCRIBED by 

Albert Rutherston, the illustrator of Inclinations: ‘For Julien this “Refresher”. The author’s 

last work was illustrated by me. We quarrelled ‒ his morals were bad ‒ hence the sub title 

of this his next effort. I pass it to you as one “sub” to another. God Bless you & may our 

search for Romance & adventure in Ryde meet, at length, with success. A.R. 26 May 17.’ 

Benkovitz A4. 

‘Far away in the East, the day began to Dawn. A flush of yellow like ripe fruit spread 

slowly across the sky. The birds in the trees piped drowsily to one another, and the bent 

cyclamens by the riverside lifted their fragrant hearts in rapture to the rising sun’. 

14 

£60


Caprice 

1917 

Grant Richards. FIRST EDITION. One of 500 copies. Frontispiece by Augustus John. 

Dedicated to Stephen Hammerton, the celebrated seventeenth century boy actor. The 

bookplate of Ernest E Taylor, author of The Valiant Sixty (1947), a well-regarded history of 

the origins of the Quaker movement, is tipped onto the front pastedown endpaper. 

On the verso of the half-title a new Firbank novel, entitled Glenmouth: A Romantic Novel, 

is announced as ‘in preparation’; this later appeared under the title Valmouth. This copy 

is internally clean, but the cloth on the binding is lifting in a few places, and there is no 

dustjacket. Caprice is notoriously the most difficult Firbank to find in its first edition. 

Benkovitz A5. 

‘How he got up those narrow stairs is a mystery to me’. 

£120 

15


Valmouth: A Romantic Novel 

1919 

Grant Richards. FIRST EDITION. One of 500 copies. Frontispiece by Augustus John. 

The neat book label of John Johnson (1882-1956), the eminent papyrologist and Printer 

to Oxford University, is pasted onto the front pastedown endpaper. Very good, with some 

foxing to the half-title and title pages, and to the outer and lower edges. The dustjacket 

is remarkably intact, with a small closed tear to the upper cover and a 7mm piece missing 

from the top of the lower cover. Benkovitz A6a. 

‘May a woman know, dear,’ Mrs Hurstpierpoint softly said, ‘when she may receive her 

drubbing?’ 

16 

£350


Valmouth 

1956 

Duckworth. ILLUSTRATED EDITION. One of 2,500 copies. Illustrations, eight in full 

colour, by the French writer and artist Philippe Jullian. Near fine, with slightly dulled spine 

and extremities, in a near fine dustjacket with a faded backstrip and a closed tear at the 

front fold. Benkovitz A6b. 

‘Do you care to undergo a course ob me?’ she asked. ‘For de full course ‒ I make you easy 

terms; and I always try,’ she airily cozened, ‘to end off wid a charming sensation.’ 

£10 

17


Valmouth: The Musical 

1958 

A collection of items relating to Sandy Wilson’s musical comedy Valmouth, loosely adapted 

from Firbank’s novel: 

(a) The printed programme for the original production at the Lyric Opera House 

Hammersmith, where the musical opened on 2 October 1958, after two trial weeks at the 

New Shakespeare Theatre in Liverpool. Bertice Reading was cast as Mrs Yajnavalkya, 

Fenella Fielding as Lady Parvula, and Doris Hare as Grannie Tooke. 

(b) The CD of the Pye Records recording, on 28 January 1959, of the original 

production, which had transferred the day before to the Saville Theatre in Shaftesbury 

Avenue. Bertice Reading had been replaced by Cleo Laine, and there is some difference of 

opinion as to which of the two stars was the definitive Mrs Yajnavalkya. 

(c) The printed programme for the Saville Theatre production, with one of the 

original seat tickets, priced at five shillings. 

(d) The printed programme for the Chichester Festival Theatre production in 1982, 

in which Bertice Reading, Fenella Fielding and Doris Hare reprised their roles, and ‒ an 

inspired piece of casting ‒ Robert Helpmann played Cardinal Pirelli. 

(e) The LP record of the 1982 Chichester Theatre Festival production. The record 

cover is in good overall condition and there are no discernible scratches or other flaws on 

the vinyl. 

18 

£80


The Princess Zoubaroff 

1920 

Grant Richards. FIRST EDITION. One of 530 copies. Two colour illustrations by Michel 

Sevier. The bookplate of Rives Skinker Matthews (1907-1981), the American journalist on 

The New York Herald-Tribune and The Billboard, and publisher of the Maryland Somerset 

News, is pasted onto the front pastedown endpaper. A near fine copy, with some light 

spotting to the upper board, in a near fine dustjacket with one small chip off the top of the 

back panel. Benkovitz A7. 

‘His Hellenism once captivated me. But the Attic to him means nothing now but Servants’ 

bedrooms’. 

£220 

19


Santal 

1921 

Grant Richards. FIRST EDITION. One of 300 copies. INSCRIBED by the author on 

the front free endpaper: ‘From Ronald Firbank / July 1923’. Firbank inscriptions are 

exceptionally scarce. Dedicated to his Cambridge friend Coleridge Kennard’s mother 

Helen Carew, who introduced Firbank to Lord Berners. Very good copy, with a chipped 

backstrip ‒ as in almost all copies of this book ‒ with loss of the final four letters of 

‘Firbank’. The lower cover shows an area of fading and a few tiny dots of the same black 

ink that has been used for Firbank’s inscription. Protected in a custom black chemise in a 

black slipcase ‒ the spine of which has been rubbed in places ‒ and lettered on the spine in 

gold. Benkovitz A8a. 

‘As an exponent of the Handkerchief Dance there was not to be found, perhaps, her equal. 

Her wrigglings, her writhings, her facial play - these were things not to be forgot’. 

20 

£950


Santal 

1955 

Bonacio & Saul with Grove Press. FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. One of a probable 

edition of 500 copies. Fine in a fine dustjacket, with a bookseller’s book label and another 

bookseller’s red stamp ‒ both of these very small ‒ at the foot of the last leaf of the book. 

Benkovitz A8b. 

‘He found her in the kitchen with Mabrouka holding the very knife, while on the Moorish 

chest in a stream of gushing blood, lay the lamb. “I think cutlets!” Amoucha was saying’. 

£60 

21


The Flower Beneath the Foot 

1923 

Grant Richards. FIRST EDITION. One of 1,000 copies. Drawings of Firbank by 

Augustus John and Wyndham Lewis, and a striking dustjacket portrait in blue of the 

fictional Laura de Nazianzi by C R W Nevinson. Dedicated to ‘Madame Mathieu and 

Mademoiselle Dora Garnier-Pagès’ ‒ presumably a mother and daughter ‒ who have to this 

day escaped identification. At the very end of the publisher’s advertisements at the back of 

the book ‘a study of West Indian life and manners’ is said to be ‘in preparation’; this later 

appeared under the title Sorrow in Sunlight. Fine in a near fine dustjacket with a very small 

chip from the top of the backstrip. Benkovitz A9a. 

‘He has such strength! One could niche an idol in his dear, dinted chin’. 

22 

£350


The Flower Beneath the Foot 

1924 

Brentano’s. FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. After the title page, there is a facsimile threepage 

reproduction of Firbank’s autograph signed preface within a single-rule black frame. 

The dustjacket has the portrait of Laura de Nazianzi by C R W Nevinson, this time in 

orange. Near fine with some rubbing to the gold lettering on the spine and the small book 

label of The Sunwise Turn Inc ‒ a prominent bookshop on 44th St in New York ‒ at the top 

of the front pastedown endpaper. The dustjacket has a few tiny closed tears and one small 

chip from the top of the backstrip. Benkovitz A9b. 

‘With the deftness of a virtuoso, the Countess seized, and crushed with her muff, a palewinged 

passing gnat’. 

£120 

23


Prancing Nigger 

1924 

Brentano’s. FIRST EDITION. One of a probable 300 copies of the First Printing. 

Introduction by Carl Van Vechten. Fine in a very good dustjacket, reproducing the mauvecoloured 

frontispiece illustration by Robert E Locher. The dustjacket has some chipping 

and short closed tears from the top of the faded backstrip and in particular from the foot of 

its upper panel. Benkovitz A10a. 

‘On de whole, it was quite an enjoyable pahty ‒ doh dat music ob Wagner, it gib me de 

retches’. 

24 

£150


Sorrow in Sunlight 

1924 

Brentano’s. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. Number 215 of an edition of 1,000. Endpapers 

designed by C R W Nevinson Near fine copy without the dustjacket. Some wear to each 

end of the spine, the lettering on which is faded. There is a small area of glue residue, 

approximately three centimetres by one and a half centimetres, from the removal of a book 

label from the verso of the front free endpaper. Benkovitz A10b. 

‘The appearance of the Cunan Constabulary, handsome youngsters, looking the apotheosis 

themselves of earthly lawlessness, in their feathered sun-hats and bouncing kilts, created a 

diversion’. 

£60 

25


Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli 

1926 

Grant Richards. FIRST EDITION. One of 1,000 copies. Frontispiece drawing of Firbank 

by Augustus John, and a colour portrait of Firbank by Charles Shannon on the dustjacket. 

Near fine with exceptionally bright lettering on the upper cover and spine. A very small 

number of spots of foxing on the outside edge. Very good dustjacket with several tiny 

chips and closed tears. Benkovitz A11. 

‘On the Feast of the Circumcision she invariably caused to be laid before the high-altar of 

the cathedral a peculiarly shaped loaf to the confusion of all who saw it’. 

26 

£300


The Works of Ronald Firbank 

1928 

Duckworth and Brentano’s. FIRST COLLECTED EDITION. Number 197 of a limited 

edition of 235 sets, 200 of which were for sale. The title pages of all five volumes 

are dated 1929, although the edition was published in 1928. The first volume has an 

introduction by Arthur Waley and a ‘biographical memoir’ by Osbert Sitwell. This set is 

in remarkably good condition although, as with all surviving sets, its grey dustjackets have 

long since disappeared. This has resulted in a few scuff marks on the covers and uniformly 

embrowned spines. Benkovitz A12a. 

£350 

27


The Works of Ronald Firbank 

1929-1930 and 1940 

Duckworth. RAINBOW EDITION. This edition, so-named because of its colourful 

dustjackets, was first published in eight volumes in 1929 and 1930, and reissued with 

slightly different designs in 1940. It is legendarily difficult to assemble complete sets 

of the 1929-1930 edition, indeed to assemble any set of the Rainbow Edition at all. The 

set offered for sale here is made up of four volumes of the 1929-1930 edition (Caprice, 

Inclinations, Vainglory and The Princess Zoubaroff) and four volumes of the 1940 

reissue (Prancing Nigger, Valmouth, The Flower Beneath the Foot and Concerning the 

Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli). All volumes are in near fine condition, with the tiniest 

of spots of foxing along their top edges. Some of the backstrips on the dustjackets have 

slightly faded. There is some offsetting of the dustjacket flaps on the endpapers. The upper 

board of one volume ‒ The Flower Beneath the Foot ‒ has some discoloration, and the 

dustjacket of another ‒ Caprice ‒ is price-clipped. Benkovitz A12c. 

28 

£220


Five Novels 

1949 

Duckworth. OMNIBUS EDITION, ENGLISH ISSUE. One of 2,350 copies of the English 

issue. A long introduction by Osbert Sitwell. The dustjacket splendidly designed by Keith 

Vaughan. Fine in a near fine dustjacket with some minor chipping to the extremities. 

Benkovitz A12d. 

£60 

29


Three Novels 

1950 

Duckworth. OMNIBUS EDITION, ENGLISH ISSUE. One of 2,500 copies of the English 

issue. Introduction by Ernest Jones. Bright, near fine copy, with a few tiny spots of foxing 

on the front endpapers and the outside edge. Small bookseller’s book label at the foot of 

the front pastedown endpaper. The dustjacket, strikingly designed by Keith Vaughan, has 

been price-clipped and has some beginnings of rubbing at its extremities. Benkovitz A12d. 

30 

£30


The Artificial Princess 

1934 

Duckworth. FIRST ORDINARY EDITION. One of 2,000 copies. Introduction by 

Coleridge Kennard. Bright, near fine copy, with spots of foxing along the top edge. 

Dustjacket is flawless. Benkovitz A13a. 

‘He also keeps pets. Lovely plump pigeons that take his letters; and run little errands of 

mercy for him through the sky. Only last night I noticed two of his birds fly over the Palace 

with a pair of stockings’. 

£80 

31


The Artificial Princess 

1934 

Centaur Press. FIRST LIMITED EDITION. Number 6 of an edition of only 60 copies. 

Introduction by Coleridge Kennard, the text identical to that in Item 22. Three full-page 

illustrations by Hugh Easton. Bound and dustjacketed to constitute the sixth volume of 

The Works of Ronald Firbank (see Item 18). Near fine, with a few spots of foxing on the 

endpapers, in a near fine dustjacket with one short closed tear, marked and spotted in places 

and with an embrowned backstrip. Scarce in the dustjacket. Benkovitz A13b. 

‘He wore the dainty trappings of a page in a Benozzo Gozzoli, and was paid a large wage 

to look wilful, and to stand about corridors and pout’. 

32 

£280


Extravaganzas 

1935 

Coward-McCann. FIRST EDITION. One of 1,200 copies. Introduction by Coleridge 

Kennard, the text identical to that in Items 22 and 23. The book reprints two of Firbank’s 

novels: The Artificial Princess, mistakenly named ‘The Enchanted Princess’ on the 

dustjacket, and Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli. Fine copy in a near fine 

dustjacket. Benkovitz A15. 

‘The impressionable, highly amative nature of the little Obdulia gave her governesses some 

grounds for alarm. At the Post Office one day she had watched a young man lick a stamp. 

His rosy tongue had vanquished her’. 

£80 

33


The Complete Ronald Firbank 

1961 

Duckworth. FIRST EDITION. One of 5,100 copies. Preface by Anthony Powell. Pristine 

copy in a fine dustjacket. Benkovitz A17. 

34 

£200


The New Rythum and Other Pieces 

1962 

Duckworth. FIRST EDITION. One of 5,000 copies. Introduction by Alan Harris. 

Fourteen interesting photographs. Fine in a fine price-clipped dustjacket. Benkovitz A19a. 

Included in this volume are: two short stories, ‘A Study in Temperament’ and ‘Lady 

Appledore’s Mésalliance’; a fragment of a novel, The New Rythum, set in New York; a 

miscellany of amusing ‘short passages from unpublished writings’; and a useful appendix 

listing the valuable Firbank materials sold by Sotheby’s in 1961. 

£20 

35


Far Away 

1966 

Typographic Laboratory, University of Iowa. FIRST EDITION. One of 80 copies issued, 

of an intended edition of 100. A brief fragment, with an informative ‘bibliographical note’ 

by Miriam J Benkovitz. The edition was issued with yellow laid paper wrappers, but this 

copy is perhaps unique in that its wrappers are pale blue. Fine. Benkovitz A22. 

36 

£80


An Early Flemish Painter 

1969 

The Enitharmon Press. FIRST EDITION. One of 300 copies. ‘Issued at Christmas 1969 

as a greeting for the friends of the Enitharmon Press and Miriam J Benkovitz’. 185 

copies were printed with the Enitharmon Press name, and 115 with the name of Miriam 

J Benkovitz. This is one of the Enitharmon Press copies. A photograph of the portrait 

of Emperor Charles V attributed to Jan Gossaert is tipped in. Unfortunately, as with 

all copies, an inappropriate glue was used to attach the photograph, and over time this 

has produced light lines of foxing on the verso and on the page opposite. A tiny 2mm 

production fault on the top edge has attracted a spot of foxing. In all other respects this 

copy is excellent. Benkovitz A24. 

£30 

37


Two Early Stories 

1971 

Albondocani Press. FIRST EDITION. Number 165 of 226 copies. Six illustrations by 

Edward Gorey – one of his scarcest books. Foreword by Miriam J Benkovitz. Fine. 

Benkovitz A26. 

The stories, ‘The Wavering Disciple: A Fantasia’ and ‘A Study in Opal’, were first 

published in The Granta in 1906 and 1907 respectively. 

38 

£180


La Princesse Aux Soleils & Harmonie 

1974 

The Enitharmon Press. FIRST EDITION. Number 158 of 200 copies. Four illustrations 

by Philippe Jullian. Introduction by Miriam J Benkovitz. This was the copy of Benkovitz’s 

good friend the rare book dealer George Sims, with his elegant orange book label on the 

front pastedown endpaper. It is INSCRIBED to Sims and his wife above Benkovitz’s 

introduction: ‘Beryl and George, / with love / Miriam’. Fine in a fine glassine dustjacket. 

Benkovitz A27. 

Two very short pieces, written by Firbank in French when he was only eighteen, and 

appearing in 1904 and 1905 in the Parisian journal Les Essais ‒ his first two publications. 

They are here reprinted in the original French, with translations by Edgell Rickword. 

£80 

39


When Widows Love & A Tragedy in Green: Two Stories 

1980 

The Enitharmon Press. FIRST EDITION. One of 300 unnumbered copies. Edited with 

an introduction by Edward Martin Potoker. Two short stories written in Firbank’s youth but 

here appearing in print for the first time, apart from very brief extracts in The New Rythum 

(see Item 26). The dustjacket was designed by the English artist Frances Richards (1903- 

1985), who has INSCRIBED this copy on the half title to the famously assiduous autograph 

collector Harry Spilstead (1925-2008): ‘For / Harry Spilstead / from / Frances Richards’. 

Fine copy in a fine dustjacket. Benkovitz A29. 

40 

£60

32. FLETCHER, Ifan Kyrle 

Ronald Firbank: A Memoir 

1930 

Duckworth. FIRST EDITION. One of a probable 1,500 copies. The scarcity of this book 

is due to the destruction of part of the stock in an enemy air raid in 1940. Fine ‒ the lower 

board is bumped at the top fore-corner ‒ in the scarce dustjacket, which is price-clipped 

with several tiny chips and a faded backstrip. Benkovitz B2. 

Fletcher’s evocative flagship essay ‒ written when he was only twenty-five ‒ takes up the 

bulk of the book, and concludes that ‘but for the irony of such artists as Firbank, sobriety 

and prudery and temperance would descend upon us like a black and stifling pall’. And so 

say all of us. There are shorter essays by Vyvyan Holland, Augustus John, Osbert Sitwell 

(whose contribution was first published two years previously ‒ see Item 18) and Lord 

Berners. Altogether one of the most important books on Firbank. 

£320 

41

33. BROOKE, Jocelyn 

Ronald Firbank 

1951 

Arthur Barker Limited. FIRST EDITION. Fine in a near fine dustjacket with one close 

tear and a little chipping to the backstrip’s extremities. Benkovitz B3. 

The first attempt at a book-length study of Firbank’s work, published as one of the volumes 

in Arthur Barker Limited’s English Novelists Series. The book is breezily readable but 

just manages to stay on the right side of superficiality. Now and then there is a note of 

disapproval: ‘The typically ninetyish combination of sanctity and smut was always a 

temptation to Firbank’. 

42 

£20

34. BENKOVITZ, Miriam J 

A Bibliography of Ronald Firbank 

1963 

Rupert Hart-Davis. FIRST EDITION. One of 1,063 copies. Near fine copy ‒ three spots 

of foxing on the outer edge and some rubbing to the spine’s extremities ‒ in a fine priceclipped 

dustjacket. Benkovitz B6. 

together with 

Supplement to A Bibliography of Ronald Firbank 

1980 

The Enitharmon Press. FIRST EDITION. One of 400 unnumbered copies. Fine in a fine 

dustjacket. 

together with 

A Bibliography of Ronald Firbank 

1982 

Clarendon Press. SECOND EDITION. Fine copy in a fine price-clipped dustjacket. 

£60 

43

35. KIECHLER, John Anthony 

The Butterfly’s Freckled Wings: A Study of Style in 

the Novels of Ronald Firbank 

1969 

Francke Verlag Bern. FIRST EDITION. This is the published version of Kiechler’s thesis, 

presented to the University of Zurich in 1967. He disaggregates and discusses several 

elements of Firbank’s fiction: local colour, reported speech, dialogue and imagery. Fine, 

but with a 2cm water stain on the spine. Not in Benkovitz. 

44 

£40

36. MERRITT, James Douglas 


1969 

Twayne Publishers Inc. FIRST EDITION. One of 2,000 copies. Number 93 in Twayne’s 

English Authors Series. Fine in a near fine dustjacket, with one small closed tear and a 

slightly rubbed backstrip. Benkovitz B8. 

£15 

45


Ronald Firbank: A Biography 

1969 

Alfred A Knopf. FIRST EDITION. One of 4,000 copies. Fine in a near fine dustjacket, 

with two closed tears, one of which, on the backstrip, has an expertly applied internal 

repair. Benkovitz B7a. 

46 

£20


Ronald Firbank: A Biography 

1970 

Weidenfeld and Nicolson. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. Near fine, with some spots 

of foxing on top and outer edges, and a small area of glue residue, approximately three 

centimetres by one and a half centimetres, from the removal of a book label from the front 

free endpaper. The dustjacket is near fine, with some rubbing at the extremities. Benkovitz 

B7b. 

£20 

47

39. CUNARD, Nancy 

Thoughts About Ronald Firbank 

1971 

Albondocani Press. FIRST EDITION. One of 26 lettered copies in a total edition of 

226 copies. This copy is lettered ‘T’. Foreword by Miriam J Benkovitz. Fine. Not in 

Benkovitz. 

together with 

A prospectus issued by the Albondocani Press announcing the simultaneous publication of 

this essay and Two Early Stories (see Item 29). Fine. 

48 

£60

40. BROPHY, Brigid 

Prancing Novelist: A Defence of Fiction in the Form 

of a Critical Biography in Praise of Ronald Firbank 

1973 

Macmillan. FIRST EDITION. Near fine ‒ some very light discoloration to the outer edge 

and rubbing to extremities ‒ in a fine dustjacket. Benkovitz B10. 

£60 

49

41. HORDER, Mervyn 

Ronald Firbank: Memoirs and Critiques 

1977 

Duckworth. FIRST EDITION. One of 4,750 copies. Edited with an introduction by 

Mervyn Horder. Reprints all the essays in Item 32, and various other short pieces on 

Firbank written by literary celebrities. Fine copy in a near fine dustjacket, the backstrip of 

which has uniformly faded. Benkovitz B11. 

50 

£30


Firbankiana: Being a Collection of Reminiscences of 


1989 

Hanuman Books. FIRST EDITION. Number 30 in the Hanuman Books Series. Fine. 

Hanuman Books, publishing from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, was the brainchild of 

Raymond Foye and Francesco Clemente. Its small format books were edited in New York 

but printed in Madras, and sought to promote writers ignored by mainstream publishers. 

Its history is comprehensively described on the website of the University of Michigan 

Library, which houses its archive. Firbankiana consists of fifty short anecdotes ‒ extracted 

from previously published essays by Firbank’s friends ‒ with a particular focus on his 

eccentricities. 

£10 

51


Complete Short Stories 

1990 

Dalkey Archive Press. FIRST EDITION. Edited by the meticulous Firbank scholar Steven 

Moore, who has appended useful textual notes on each story. Fine in a fine dustjacket. 

52 

£30


The Early Firbank 

1991 

Quartet Books. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. Edited by Steven Moore. Fine in a fine 

dustjacket. 

This is the English edition of Item 43, with the addition of the two short plays The Mauve 

Tower and A Disciple from the Country. There is a short but insightful introduction by 

Alan Hollinghurst, who had written his Oxford M.Litt. thesis on Firbank among others, and 

went on to give him a walk-on part in his debut novel The Swimming-Pool Library. Alan 

Hollinghurst remains a considerable authority on Firbank, as indeed does Steven Moore. 

£30 

53

45. UNIVERSITY THESIS William Lane Clark 

Subversive Aesthetics: Literary Camp in the Novels of 


1991 

An original copy of Clark’s PhD thesis, George Washington University. Fine. 

together with 

A typed letter dated 20 January 1995 and signed by Clark, telling his correspondent that his 

views on Firbank had been developing since he had written the thesis: ‘The arguments have 

evolved considerably...some positions have been reversed, some abandoned’. 

54 

£50


Complete Plays 

1994 

Dalkey Archive Press. FIRST EDITION. Edited with an introduction by Steven Moore, 

who also appends ‘A Note on the Texts’. Fine in a fine dustjacket. 

£30 

55

47. MOORE, Steven 

Ronald Firbank: An Annotated Bibliography of 

Secondary Materials, 1905-1995 

1996 

Dalkey Archive Press. FIRST EDITION. Edited with a preface by Steven Moore. A very 

few of the early copies ‒ of which this is one ‒ were sold without the final line of Moore’s 

preface; it was pasted into all subsequent copies. Fine. 

A tour de force of bibliographical compilation, with a comprehensive and accurate 

index and a particularly enlightening section entitled ‘Creative Works’, which lists all of 

Firbank’s appearances in subsequent fiction and non-fiction and traces his influence on a 

range of writers. 

56 

£20


Letters to His Mother 1920-1924 

2001 

Privately printed at the Stamperia Valdonega, Verona. FIRST EDITION. One of 300 

ordinary copies (there were also 150 special copies). Edited with an introduction and an 

epilogue by Anthony Hobson. Fine in a fine dustjacket. 

£100 

57


Vainglory with Inclinations and Caprice 

2012 

Penguin Classics. FIRST EDITION THUS. Edited with a lengthy introduction by Richard 

Canning. Cover illustration by Andy Warhol. Fine. SIGNED by the editor on the title 

page. 

Professor Canning, who has also written a biography of Firbank, has accompanied these 

three texts with a useful and interesting critical apparatus, and on this showing some 

imaginative academic press should commission him to edit a much-needed full scholarly 

edition of Firbank’s works. 

58 

£20

PART 2 

LORD BERNERS 

(1883 - 1950)

50. ANONYMOUS 

Miniature Essays: Lord Berners 

1922 

J & W Chester Ltd. FIRST EDITION. One of 3,000 copies. This was published as the 

third in the Miniature Essays Series. Berners was still in his thirties and was known only 

as a composer, as he had not yet begun to write. The text is in English, with a full French 

translation. Tipped-in frontispiece photograph of Berners, reproductions of two pages from 

his published music, and a checklist of his compositions. Given the supposed number of 

published copies, this booklet is unaccountably scarce. Near fine, as the card covers are a 

little tired. 

£40 

60

51. BERNERS, Lord 

The Camel 

1936 

Constable. FIRST EDITION. Three illustrations by the author. Fine in a fine dustjacket. 

Berners’s first novel relates the disruption caused in an English village when a camel 

inexplicably turns up at the vicarage. The characters of the vicar and his wife were loosely 

based on John and Penelope Betjeman. 

£150 

61


The Camel 

1936 

Constable. PROOF COPY in boards and with a printed label on the upper cover. The three 

Berners illustrations are lacking. Peter Streuli’s copy, with his small library stamp on the 

front pastedown endpaper and his signature on the front free endpaper. Very good copy, the 

boards rubbed and soiled but internally excellent. 

Peter Streuli (1915-2007) was an influential figure in British theatre, working variously as 

a stage manager, director, actor and teacher. One wonders whether there were thoughts of 

adapting Berners’s novel for the stage. 

62 

£40


Far from the Madding War 

1941 

Constable. FIRST EDITION. Three illustrations by the author. INSCRIBED by the 

author on the front free endpaper: ‘H. Stanley King / from / Berners / August 1941’. Fine 

with a slightly faded spine, in a very good price-clipped dustjacket with several chips and 

closed tears and a faint red mark on the upper panel. 

Berners’s second novel recounts adventures in the lives of dons and their families in 

wartime Oxford, most memorably Emmeline Pocock ‒ illustrated on the dustjacket ‒ whose 

‘war work’ is the unpicking of a rare medieval German embroidery. Berners depicts 

himself as ‘Lord FitzCricket’. Stanley King was an accountant who gave Berners financial 

advice from time to time. 

£150 

63


Count Omega 

1941 

Constable. FIRST EDITION. Frontispiece by the author. Very good, with some 

unobtrusive foxing to the first few leaves, in a good dustjacket which is soiled and has lost 

some chips from both ends of its backstrip and from the top of the upper panel. 

Berners’s third novel is the story of a young composer ‒ loosely based on William Walton ‒ 

who has obtained the financial backing of a mysterious millionaire to ensure a spectacular 

premiere for his first symphony. When Walton expressed his relief that he wasn’t actually 

named in the novel, Berners teased him by sending him a note: ‘If you insist on trying to 

thrust yourself into my novels in this fashion, I shall be obliged to apply for an injunction 

to restrain you from doing so’. He followed up with a mischievous letter to Walton’s 

solicitors: ‘I am shortly bringing out a book called Ridiculous Composers I Have Known. 

If your client, Mr William Walton, should consider it necessary to see a copy before 

publication, will you kindly tell him to apply to Messrs Constable?’ 

64 

£50


Percy Wallingford and Mr. Pidger 

1941 

Basil Blackwell. FIRST EDITION. Two novellas, the first of which has a printed 

dedication to Clarissa Churchill, Anthony Eden’s wife. INSCRIBED by the author on 

the half-title: ‘Juliet / with love / from / Gerald / October 1941’. Covers, edges and 

preliminaries mildly spotted, lower cover with a patch of discoloration. 

together with 

A short holograph letter from the author to Juliet Duff: ‘My dear Juliet, Here are the two 

stories. I hope they will amuse you. It was nice seeing you yesterday. Love from Gerald. 

Oct.16.41’. 

Lady Juliet Duff (1881-1965) was the daughter of the 4th Earl of Lonsdale and the wife of 

Sir Robin Duff, who was killed at Mons in the Great War. Berners knew her through her 

son, his friend Michael Duff (1907-1980), who was fond of cross-dressing as Queen Mary 

until he embarrassingly came face-to-face with the real Queen when they both made calls 

on the same person. Michael Duff wrote an amusing privately printed novella, The Power 

of a Parasol (1948), in which Berners appears as ‘Sir Purvis Bernard’. 

£250 

65


The Romance of a Nose 

1941 

Constable. FIRST EDITION. Frontispiece by the author. Fine in a fine dustjacket with 

one or two tiny closed tears. 

Berners’s fourth full-length novel centres upon Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, and her 

dissatisfaction with her long nose, to shorten which she undergoes plastic surgery, with 

momentous consequences. 

66 

£100


A Distant Prospect 

1945 

Constable. FIRST EDITION. Frontispiece by the author, and three photographs. 

INSCRIBED by the author on the front pastedown endpaper: ‘With every good / wish from 

/ the author / Berners /July 1945’. Fine – with the lightest trace of foxing to the edges – in 

a fine dustjacket. 

A memoir of Berners’s schooldays at Eton, which he left ‘as Antony left Cleopatra, with 

more love than benediction’. 

£120 

67


First Childhood and Far from the Madding War 

1983 

Oxford University Press. FIRST EDITION THUS. Preface by Harold Acton. This 

paperback was the first serious attempt to introduce Berners to a broader readership. First 

Childhood has a tongue-in-cheek printed dedication to Berners’s notoriously unliterary 

partner: ‘To Robert Heber-Percy, whose knowledge of orthography and literary style has 

proved invaluable’. Fine. 

68 

£20


First Childhood 

1998 

Turtle Point Press and Helen Marx Books. FIRST SEPARATE PAPERBACK EDITION. 

Described on the colophon as the ‘1st pbk ed’. Cover illustration from William Hogarth. 

Fine 

together with 

Turtle Point Press and Helen Marx Books. Uncorrected Galleys. Near fine, with a tiny loss 

to the foot of the upper cover. 

together with 

Two sheets of marketing material in fine condition, one of them characterising Berners 

rather oddly as a master of ‘Firbankian understatement’. 

Constant Lambert wrote: ‘With the always honourable exception of The Home Life of 

Herbert Spencer, I can honestly say that First Childhood is the funniest book I have ever 

read’. 

£40 

69


A Distant Prospect 

1998 

Turtle Point Press and Helen Marx Books. FIRST SEPARATE PAPERBACK EDITION. 

Described on the colophon as the ‘1st pbk ed’. Cover illustration from William Hogarth. 

Fine. 

together with 

Turtle Point Press and Helen Marx Books. Uncorrected Galleys. Fine. 

70 

£40


First Childhood and A Distant Prospect 

1999 

Weidenfeld & Nicolson. NEW HARDBACK EDITIONS. Fine in spectacularly colourful 

fine dustjackets. 

£30 

71


Collected Tales and Fantasies 

1999 

Turtle Point Press and Helen Marx Books. FIRST COLLECTED EDITION. This edition 

was published in paperback only. Fine. 

together with 

Turtle Point Press and Helen Marx Books. Uncorrected Galleys. Fine. 

This volume brings together Berners’s six major fictional works. Regrettably, Berners’s 

shorter writings, particularly his Beerbohm-like satirical pieces, are harder to track down. 

His parodies of Gertrude Stein’s idiosyncratic faux-naïf style are particularly funny: ‘What 

with one thing and another. What with another and one thing. What with what with what 

what wit and what not’. ‘He is saying this and this and this and this. He is saying this and 

that. He keeps on saying this and that. He is keeping on going on saying this and that. He 

means to be keeping on going on saying this and this and this. And that’. 

72 

£20


The Girls of Radcliff Hall 

2000 

Montcalm and The Cygnet Press. SECOND EDITION. Frontispiece by Emilio Coia. 

One of 500 UK copies, of a total of 750 copies. Edited with an introduction, a key to the 

characters and a postscript by the bookdealer and scholar John Byrne. INSCRIBED by the 

editor on the title page: ‘For Robert Scoble with warmest regards / John Byrne’. Fine in a 

fine dustjacket. 

together with 

A fine copy of the four-page prospectus for this book. 

This roman à clef was first published in 1934, Berners using the pseudonym ‘Adela Quebec’ 

to caricature his friends as scheming and squabbling schoolgirls. The book was printed 

privately and copies were distributed sparingly. Some of the men who had been lampooned 

later took steps to find copies and destroy them. It is thought that fewer than ten copies of 

the first edition have survived. 

£120 

73


The Chȃteau de Résenlieu 

2000 

Turtle Point Press and Helen Marx Books. FIRST EDITION. Fine. 

together with 

Turtle Point Press and Helen Marx Books. A fine copy of the Uncorrected Galleys, entitled 

Chȃteau de Résenlieu. The definite article The was added to the title before publication. 

An essay describing Berners’s teenage sojourn in Normandy, where he was endeavouring 

to improve his French before applying to join the diplomatic service. 

74 

£20


Dresden 

2008 

Turtle Point Press and Helen Marx Books. FIRST EDITION. Edited with a foreword by 

Peter Dickinson. Fine. 

An essay describing Berners’s teenage sojourn in Dresden, where he was learning German 

before applying to join the diplomatic service. 

£10 

75

PART 3 

MONTAGUE SUMMERS 

(1880-1948)

66. SUMMERS, Montague 

The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism 

1950 

Rider and Company. FIRST EDITION. One of 1,500 copies. Fine in a near fine 

dustjacket, with just a little rubbing and one closed tear to the backstrip’s extremities. 

Summers has collated an enormous amount of detailed information on the stigmata and 

other mystical phenomena, such as levitation, bilocation, ecstacies and visions. Summers 

writes well and the book is an easy ‒ albeit somewhat eyebrow-raising ‒ read. 

78 

£80

67. ‘JEROME, Joseph’ 

Montague Summers: A Memoir 

1965 

Cecil & Amelia Woolf. FIRST EDITION. Number 664 of 750 copies. Foreword by Sybil 

Thorndike. There was also a special edition of 15 copies. Near fine ‒ the frontispiece 

photograph of Summers has effected some unobtrusive discoloration of the title page ‒ in a 

flimsy glassine dustjacket (not shown), largely intact but torn in places. 

‘Joseph Jerome’ was a pseudonym used by Brocard Sewell. 

£75 

79


The Galanty Show: An Autobiography 

1980 

Cecil Woolf. FIRST EDITION. Introduction by Brocard Sewell. There was also a special 

edition of 30 copies. Fine in a near fine price-clipped dustjacket, the backstrip slightly 

faded. 

80 

£40

69. d’ARCH SMITH, Timothy 

Montague Summers: A Bibliography 

1983 

The Aquarian Press. SECOND EDITION. The first edition had been published in 1964. 

Compiled and introduced by Timothy d’Arch Smith. Foreword by Brocard Sewell. Fine in 

a fine dustjacket. 

£10 

81

70. FRANK, Frederick S 

Montague Summers: A Bibliographical Portrait 

1988 

The Scarecrow Press. FIRST EDITION. Number 7 in the Great Bibliographers Series. 

The bibliographical section is not as meticulous as might be expected of a reliable 

bibliography. However, this book is an essential resource, as it reprints fifteen essays by 

Summers himself and essays on him by the Summers experts Brocard Sewell, Robert 

Hume and Devendra Varma. Fine, without a dustjacket, as issued. 

82 

£20

71. SEWELL, Brocard 

Tell Me Strange Things 

1991 

The Aylesford Press. FIRST EDITION. Number 16 of 35 hardback copies SIGNED 

by Brocard Sewell. The other 150 copies in the total edition of 185 were paperbound. 

Introduction by Sandy Robertson and Edwin Pouncey. Fine in a fine dustjacket. 

A slim volume commemorating the erection and unveiling of a memorial stone on 

Summers’s grave at Richmond Cemetery. 

£40 

83


Antinous and Other Poems 

1995 

Cecil Woolf. SECOND EDITION. The first edition had been published in 1907 and copies 

are exceptionally scarce. Edited with an informative introduction by Timothy d’Arch 

Smith and Edwin Pouncey. Fine in a fine dustjacket, which is a replica of that used on the 

1907 edition. 

A classic of decadent literature, with its mixture of the sacred and the satanic and its hints 

of decay and sexual transgression. 

84 

£40

PART 4 

RICHARD RUMBOLD 

(1913-1961)

73. RUMBOLD, Richard 

Little Victims: A Novel 

1933 

The Fortune Press. FIRST EDITION. This is Richard Rumbold’s only novel, written 

when he was only nineteen. Near fine copy of a vanishingly scarce book. The boards are 

a little rubbed, with a few spots of foxing on the top edge and a small bookdealer’s book 

label at the foot of the front pastedown endpaper. The characteristic Fortune Press yellow 

dustjacket is bright and completely intact except that it is price-clipped and its backstrip has 

faded a little. 

Vividly autobiographical, Little Victims recounts its student protagonist’s anguish over his 

homosexuality, complicated by his Catholic upbringing and his fears that he might inherit 

his mother’s mental illness. The book had a succès de scandale but the critics were hostile, 

partly because of its subject matter and partly because of its melodramatic plot. The 

Fortune Press’s proprietor R A Caton encouraged its sales by suggesting that Rumbold had 

been excommunicated by the Catholic Church for writing it. In fact the Catholic chaplain 

at Oxford, the famous Ronnie Knox, who was under pressure from his bishop, had merely 

been insisting that Rumbold take counsel with him before he next presented himself at the 

Communion rail. Attempts at censorship of any kind are almost always very foolish. 

86 

£380

74. ‘LUMFORD, Richard’ 

My Father’s Son 

1949 

Jonathan Cape. FIRST EDITION, First impression, published in January 1949. Dark 

green binding. Very good with, oddly enough, two pages only ‒ the front and back free 

endpapers ‒ somewhat foxed. Informative pencilled annotations throughout by a previous 

owner. No dustjacket. 

together with 

A copy of the FIRST EDITION, Second impression, published later the same year. Redbrown 

binding. Very good, with a long line in blue ballpoint on the front pastedown 

endpaper and a thumbnail-sized area of fading on the spine. Dustjacket ‒ examples of 

which are rarely seen ‒ in a sorry state, soiled and with large chips along the extremities 

and three marks in blue ballpoint. 

Copies of Rumbold’s autobiography, published under the pseudonym ‘Richard Lumford’, 

are very scarce in any condition. Both impressions are included here because the first 

has contemporary annotations by an anonymous former owner who claims to have 

been a witness to one of the most important episodes in Rumbold’s life, and because the 

second has retained at least some of its exceptionally rare dustjacket. Rumbold recounts, 

seemingly straightforwardly but perhaps not quite reliably, the tragic circumstances he had 

fictionalised years before in Little Victims. 

£80 

87

75. PLOMER, William 

A Message in Code: The Diary of Richard Rumbold 

1932-60 

1964 

Weidenfeld and Nicolson. FIRST EDITION. Edited, with an introduction and explanatory 

notes throughout, by Rumbold’s second cousin William Plomer. INSCRIBED by Plomer 

on the front free endpaper to the then Warden of All Souls, John Sparrow: ‘for John ‒ / 

a diary not at / all like Kilvert’s ‒ / from W.P. / April 1964’. Fine in near fine dustjacket 

rubbed and chipped at the extremities. 

together with 

A holograph note of thanks on All Souls letterhead to John Sparrow from Robin Zaehner 

(1913-1974), Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions at Oxford and onetime British spy. 

Rumbold’s diaries are honest and revealing. They document his social life, such as it was, 

and his struggle to remain mentally calm and well, with the help of faithful friends such as 

Hilda Young and mentors such as his onetime lover Harold Nicolson. His spiritual journey 

took him from his early Catholicism, through years of travel and Buddhist studies in Asia, 

and ‒ almost ‒ back to Catholicism again. He was fascinated by men ‒ such as Dom 

Bede Griffiths and Robin Zaehner ‒ who seemed successfully to have reconciled Eastern 

mysticism with their lifelong Catholicism. 

88 

£50

PART 5 

GERALD HAMILTON 

(1890-1970)

76. HAMILTON, Gerald 

As Young As Sophocles 

1937 

Martin Secker & Warburg. FIRST EDITION. A legendary rarity, particularly in its 

dustjacket. INSCRIBED on the front free endpaper: ‘To my friend / Alan Clodd / from the 

author / Gerald Hamilton’. Very good, with light foxing on a few pages, in a very good 

dustjacket, completely intact but rubbed with some areas of discolouration on the backstrip. 

together with 

A typed letter on Debrett letterhead dated 1964 and signed by the editor, Patrick Montague- 

Smith, explaining that no evidence had been found to substantiate Hamilton’s claim that he 

was related to several aristocratic families. 

The title of Hamilton’s book is from William Johnson Cory’s poem Academus: ‘I’ll borrow 

life, and not grow old; / And nightingales and trees / Shall keep me, though the veins be 

cold, / As young as Sophocles’. This is the first of Hamilton’s unintentionally amusing 

volumes of autobiography. An incorrigible fibber and name-dropper, Hamilton habitually 

places himself at the centre of history: ‘I assisted at many interesting ceremonies at the 

Vatican, where I was repeatedly received by the Holy Father...The Siamese Minister to 

Rome invited me to accept the vacant post of Siamese Consul-General in Rome...There 

came into my hands the text of a secret treaty signed at the Hague between Japan and 

Germany’ and so on. 

90 

£320


Mr Norris and I: An Autobiographical Sketch 

1956 

Allan Wingate. FIRST EDITION. Prologue by Christopher Isherwood and epilogue by 

Maurice Richardson. Very good, with a slightly faded spine and spots of foxing on the 

edges, in a very good dustjacket with a few chips from the extremities. 

Christopher Isherwood’s novel Mr Norris Changes Trains was published in 1935, and 

Gerald Hamilton thereafter basked in his notoriety as the prototype for the disreputable 

character Mr Norris. In the mid-1950s he wrote this second volume of memoirs, repeating 

many of the stories in the first. The preposterous name-dropping resumed: ‘Like all 

friendships with Bosie Douglas, mine had its ups and downs...My friendship for Casement 

and other friendships equally compromising were the foundation of the questions I was 

asked...The Khedive asked me if it would be possible for me to arrange in Paris for 

permission for him to reside in France’. 

£30 

91


Jacaranda 

1961 

Sidgwick and Jackson. FIRST EDITION. Very good ‒ several spots of foxing on the 

edges, fading to the title on the spine, and a bookseller’s small neat stamp at the foot of the 

front pastedown endpaper ‒ in a very good price-clipped dustjacket with some small chips 

from the extremities. 

It was one of the dottier ideas of the South African apartheid apologists to commission 

Hamilton to visit their country in 1958-9 and write a book about what he found. ‘It was 

thought,’ he writes disingenuously, ‘that an open mind would be able to write a book 

better than someone with political prejudices’. Hamilton was introduced to a wide range 

of people, white and black, and took a particular and ostensibly commendable interest 

in a Boys Town just outside Johannesburg ‒ ‘one of the wickedest cities of the world’ he 

comments, approvingly ‒ where he ‘was able to mix freely with the boys’. He is dismissive 

of the anti-apartheid activists back in the UK: ‘It was to be expected that the idea of this 

foolish boycott [of South African goods into Britain] should have been born in Oxford, ever 

the home of lost causes, and I do not think much is likely to be heard of it in the future’. 

92 

£20


The Way It Was With Me 

1969 

Leslie Frewin. FIRST EDITION. Foreword by James Pope-Hennessy, who warns that 

‘like its author, the book bristles with contradiction and prejudice’. Review copy, with the 

original Leslie Frewin slip asking that no reviews appear before 29 November 1969. Near 

fine ‒ the first two or three pages, either side of the frontispiece photograph of Hamilton, 

show some unobtrusive foxing, and there is some rubbing to the extremities ‒ in a near fine 

dustjacket with tiny chips. 

For a third time a publisher has been persuaded to allow Hamilton to reprise his unlikely 

adventures. Names are dropped like confetti: the Romanovs, André Gide, Guy Burgess, the 

Chief Imperial Eunuch of China, E M Forster, Maundy Gregory, Brian Howard, Eamon de 

Valera, Benedict XV, Oswald Mosley, Tallulah Bankhead, et tout le tralala. He even has a 

disagreement about politics with a masseur in a Turkish Bath, which ends quite amicably, 

Hamilton concluding with satisfaction that ‘tout savonner c’est tout pardonner’. 

£20 

93

80. SYMONDS, John 

Conversations with Gerald 

1974 

Duckworth. FIRST EDITION. Drawings throughout by James Boswell. John Symonds 

interviews Hamilton informally and introduces the book with a preface. Fine ‒ there is just 

a touch of rubbing at the extremities of the spine ‒ in a fine price-clipped dustjacket. This 

book is scarce in such remarkable condition. 

Yet another litany of highly improbable encounters with eminent people: Robbie Ross, 

Rasputin, Aleister Crowley, A J A Symons, Oscar Browning, Gabriele d’Annunzio, 

Trebitsch Lincoln, Norman Douglas, several popes, and a woman who has had ‘an affair’ 

with a Javanese orang-outang: ‘the husband came back unexpectedly soon one day and 

caught them in flagrante’. There are even several anecdotes featuring Frederick Rolfe, 

‘Baron Corvo’, whom Hamilton claims, it goes without saying, to have known quite well. 

Hamilton tells Symonds that he liked inviting Papal Chamberlains to his luncheons ‘to 

make it Ronald Firbanky. They look picturesque in their robes’. 

94 

£40

PART 6 

SIMON RAVEN 

(1927-2001)

81. RAVEN, Simon 

Brother Cain 

1959 

Anthony Blond. FIRST EDITION. Raven’s second published novel. Fine in a near fine 

dustjacket, designed by Oliver Carson, with a little chipping at the extremities. 

96 

£25


Arms for Oblivion 

1964-1976 

Anthony Blond, later Blond & Briggs. FIRST EDITIONS. A magnificent set of Raven’s 

Arms for Oblivion sequence, ten novels in all. Fine ‒ there are tiny spots of foxing on the 

outer edge of four volumes ‒ in fine unfaded dustjackets, the first six strikingly illustrated 

by Oliver Elmes. The dustjacket of the final volume, as in all copies, has been priceclipped 

by the publisher, who has attached a revised price sticker. 

These ten novels constitute Raven’s most substantial literary achievement. A fine natural 

writer of the second rank, he might be said to have indulged too readily his taste for 

irresponsibility, vitriol and lubricity. The result is a lack of nuance in his descriptions 

of the naughtiness of his characters, so that a false note is often struck. The novels 

nevertheless remain a guilty pleasure. 

£880 

97

98


The First Born of Egypt 

1984-1992 

Blond & Briggs / Anthony Blond / Muller, Blond & White / Frederick Muller / Hutchinson. 

FIRST EDITIONS. A bright set of Raven’s The First Born of Egypt sequence, seven 

novels in all. Fine ‒ there are tiny spots of foxing on the edges of four volumes ‒ in fine 

unfaded dustjackets, the first three illustrated by Lawrence Toynbee. 

£280 

99

100


The Islands of Sorrow 

1994 

The Winged Lion. FIRST EDITION. One of 750 copies. Dustjacket illustrated by 

Lawrence Toynbee. Fine in a fine dustjacket. 

A macabre novella set in Venice. 

£20 

101


Remember Your Grammar and Other Haunted Stories 

1997 

The Winged Lion. FIRST EDITION. Dustjacket illustrated by Annie Shrager. 

Unaccountably scarce for a relatively recent book; perhaps the edition was small. Fine in a 

fine dustjacket. 

Eleven short stories on supernatural themes, all previously published in periodicals but 

never before collected. 

102 

£80

PART 7 

ROGER PEYREFITTE 

(1907-2000)

86. PEYREFITTE, Roger 

Les Amitiés Particulières 

1943 

Jean Vigneau. FIRST EDITION. One of 1,999 copies, this copy numbered ‘H.C. [hors 

commerce] No. CIX’. Sumptuously rebound by Rene Aussouri with all components of 

the original paper covers bound in, including the spine which states ‘Édition originale’. 

INSCRIBED by the author on the half-title to the Vichy collaborator Jacques Chardonne 

(1884-1968): ‘À Monsieur Jacques Chardonne, / avec l’hommage déférent / de Roger 

Peyrefitte / 17 mars 1944’. First editions of this book with Peyrefitte’s contemporary 

inscriptions are exceptionally rare. 

This novel is Peyrefitte’s chef d’oeuvre and remains one of the most admired French novels 

of the twentieth century. It tells the story of two boys at a Catholic boarding school in 

1920s France, fourteen-year-old Georges de Sarre and twelve-year-old Alexandre Motier, 

who form a romantic attachment ‒ the ‘particular friendship’ of the book’s title ‒ expressed 

no further than by a few kisses and love poems. The priests who teach at the school, 

some of them harbouring their own ambivalent feelings towards their pupils, mishandle 

the situation and the younger boy commits suicide. Peyrefitte later revealed that he had 

himself been the elder protagonist in precisely such a sequence of events at his own school. 

Les Amitiés Particulières won the Prix Renaudot and its affecting film adaptation, by Jean 

Delannoy, was nominated in 1964 for the Golden Lion in Venice. 

104 

£980


Les Amitiés Particulières 

1953 

Flammarion. ILLUSTRATED EDITION. Number 48 of 740 copies, with 24 original 

lithographs by Gaston Goor, expertly printed by Marcel Manequin. Two volumes, 

each containing a number of loose gatherings ready to be finely bound according to the 

purchaser’s taste. The two volumes are fine, but they are enclosed in a cream-coloured 

cardboard slipcase which, while fully intact, is soiled and damaged along its extremities. 

The boards of each volume and the slipcase were, of course, intended to be discarded. 

Gaston Goor (1902-1977) was a French artist who specialised in the depiction of young 

men and adolescent boys. He was a longtime collaborator with Peyrefitte, illustrating not 

only several of his books but also some of the walls and doors of his Paris apartment. 

£250 

105


Special Friendships 

1958 

Secker & Warburg. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. Translation by Edward Hyams of 

Peyrefitte’s Les Amitiés Particulières (1943). Dustjacket design by Michael Ayrton. Fine 

in a fine dustjacket. Rarely seen in this pristine condition. 

106 

£280


Diplomatic Diversions 

1953 

Thames and Hudson. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. Translation by James FitzMaurice of 

Peyrefitte’s Les Ambassades (1951). Very good ‒ the free endpapers and the edges have 

spots of foxing ‒ in a near fine fully intact dustjacket, the backstrip of which is slightly 

embrowned. 

together with 

A Thames and Hudson flyer advertising this and other books. Peyrefitte is described as 

‘France’s most talked-about young author’. 

Georges de Sarre, the principal character in Special Friendships, has been recruited by the 

Quai d’Orsay and finds he has much to learn when he is sent to Athens on his first posting. 

Peyrefitte himself was posted to the French Embassy in Athens in the mid-1930s. 

£30 

107


Diplomatic Conclusions 

1954 

Thames and Hudson. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. Translation by Edward Hyams 

of Peyrefitte’s La Fin des Ambassades (1953). Very good ‒ the boards show signs of 

discoloration, and the dustjacket flaps have caused brown offsetting to the free endpapers ‒ 

in a near fine fully intact dustjacket, the backstrip of which is slightly embrowned. 

This third instalment of Georges de Sarre’s adventures is set in Paris, where he has 

resumed working at the Quai d’Orsay, having been recalled from his Athens posting. 

Several critics disapproved of the book’s relentless lubricity, deploring in particular one 

incident involving four opportunist German soldiers at the Cathedral of Tours. 

108 

£30


South from Naples 

1954 

Thames and Hudson. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. Translation by J[ohn] H F McEwen of 

Peyrefitte’s Du Vésuve à l’Etna (1952). Drawings throughout the text by Gunter Böhmer. 

Fine in a near fine dustjacket, slightly rubbed with some fading to the backstrip. 

A travelogue which requires constant reading between the lines. Peyrefitte finds much to 

admire and enjoy, particularly in Taormina, where ‘are to be found portions of everything 

perfect that this divine region has to offer’. 

£30 

109


The Keys of St Peter 

1957 


Peyrefitte’s Les Clés de Saint Pierre (1955). Near fine ‒ some faint spots on the endpapers 

and top edge ‒ in a near fine dustjacket, fully intact but with a faded backstrip. 

This is the first of Peyrefitte’s novels to attack the shortcomings of the Catholic Church 

and the hypocrisy of its senior prelates, a subject on which he was disconcertingly well 

informed. His cynicism and willingness to name names caused great scandal and much 

amusement. In August 1955, the German magazine Der Spiegel added fuel to the fire by 

naming Peyrefitte’s principal Vatican informants. 

110 

£40


Knights of Malta 

1960 


Peyrefitte’s Les Chevaliers de Malte (1957). In this English edition, the book is entitled 

Knights of Malta on the title page and spine, but The Knights of Malta on the dustjacket, 

presumably an inadvertence of its designer Sheila Perry. Fine in a fine dustjacket. 

Peyrefitte’s second ecclesiastical exposé caused an even greater sensation than its 

predecessor. This time, instead of having to base his work on rumours, he was given copies 

of documentation which revealed every stage of a deadly feud between the ruthless and 

worldly Cardinal Canali and the highest ranking Knights of Malta. As always, Peyrefitte 

decorated his story with rich imaginative touches, but it was so accurate in its essentials 

that many senior churchmen were grievously embarrassed. 

£100 

111


The Exile of Capri 

1961 


Peyrefitte’s L’Exilé de Capri (1959). Foreword by Jean Cocteau. Fine in a fine but hideous 

dustjacket the designer of which, Antony Maitland, was presumably attempting to depict 

the fumes from Baron Fersen’s opium pipe. 

Dr Scoble has in his collection two calling cards ‒ not offered for sale here ‒ the first that 

of ‘Le Baron Jacques d’Adelswärd-Fersen’ with his Paris address, and the second that of 

‘Le Comte de Fersen’ for use on Capri. There is some uncertainty, however, as to whether 

Fersen was any kind of aristocrat at all. Peyrefitte (a lifelong snob) concedes the barony 

and gleefully recounts Fersen’s remarkable story, from his organisation of poses plastiques 

starring Parisian schoolboys to his debauched drug-induced death in his Capri villa. 

112 

£100


The Prince’s Person 

1964 

Secker & Warburg. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. Translation by Peter Fryer of Peyrefitte’s 

La Nature du Prince (1963). Fine in a fine dustjacket designed by Michael Foreman. The 

dustjacket’s backstrip has embrowned very slightly. 

A true story well suited to Peyrefitte’s libidinous predilections. Vincenzo Gonzaga, Prince 

of Mantua, having extricated himself from a childless first marriage, is required by his 

prospective new Medici in-laws to prove his virility before he can marry their daughter. 

Astonishingly, it is agreed to organise a test run, before an audience, with an orphan who 

is a certified virgin. The Prince, who is still only twenty-one, passes the test and goes on to 

father several children with his new Medici wife. 

£25 

113


The Jews: A Fictional Venture into the Follies of 

Antisemitism 

1967 

Secker & Warburg. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. Translation by Bruce Lowery of 

Peyrefitte’s Les Juifs (1965). Secker & Warburg’s ‘File Copy’ sticker on the front free 

endpaper. Very good ‒ a number of spots of foxing to the edges ‒ in a fine unfaded 

dustjacket designed by Bernard Highton. 

This novel marks the return of Peyrefitte’s alter ego Georges de Sarre, who attempts to 

shame and embarrass the antisemites of his acquaintance by demonstrating that they are 

all likely to have Jewish blood to a greater or lesser extent. 

114 

£20


Manouche 

1973 

Hart-Davis, MacGibbon. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. Translation by Derek Coltman of 

Peyrefitte’s Manouche (1972). Near fine ‒ spots of foxing to the edges ‒ in a fine although 

price-clipped dustjacket. 

A biographical essay on France’s most notorious gangster’s moll, this book marked the 

beginning of Peyrefitte’s literary descent into soft porn and the celebration of debauchery. 

£20 

115


Propos Secrets and Propos Secrets 2 

1977 and 1980 

Albin Michel. FIRST TRADE EDITIONS. Very good, but with some spots of foxing 

inside the covers and along the edges, and some rubbing at the extremities. 

These two volumes of memoirs make for compelling reading, as one expects from so 

naturally gifted a writer as Peyrefitte, but they are not for the faint-hearted. Peyrefitte 

disingenuously claims that he is recounting salacious episodes and ‘outing’ prominent 

gentlemen in a good cause: ‘Je ne suis pas un homme de scandale...Je ne suis pas un 

amateur de potins sordides. Je défends une cause’. The two books were felt to be too 

explicit to be translated into English in the 1970s, and it is even less likely that English 

readers would be allowed to read them in our own politically correct and po-faced age. 

116 

£30


Quelques Images pour La Jeunesse d’Alexandre 

1982 

La Vue. FIRST EDITION. Number 297 of 3,000 copies. Over one hundred full-page 

explicitly erotic illustrations by Gilbert Garnon. Near fine, with no major defects but 

showing the usual minor signs of age. 

The theme of the illustrations is Alexander’s emotional life and sexual exploits when he 

was being raised in his father Philip of Macedon’s household. It is to be surmised that it 

was Peyrefitte’s stipulation that the illustrations be so explicit. Peyrefitte had a lifelong 

fascination with Alexander, and claimed to have ‘re-founded’ in 1990 the bogus Order of 

Alexander with, it goes without saying, himself as its Grand Master. 

£70 

117

100. de MONTHERLANT, Henry & Roger Peyrefitte 

Correspondance 

1983 

Éditions Robert Laffont. FIRST EDITION. Near fine, with some unobtrusive 

discoloration of the endpapers. Voluminously footnoted by Peyrefitte and Pierre Sipriot. 

The correspondence between de Montherlant and Peyrefitte from 1938 to 1941, when the 

former was in his mid-forties and the latter a little younger. De Montherlant was much 

more discreet about his homosexuality than Peyrefitte, and his discretion was rewarded 

when he went on to be elected in 1960 one of the Immortals of the Académie Française. 

He died in 1972 and it is doubtful he would have approved Peyrefitte’s publication of these 

letters, which chronicle in such detail the single-minded sexual exploits of the two friends. 

It goes without saying that no English-language publisher was courageous enough to issue 

an English translation. 

118 

£40

120 

Ronald Firbank’s tombstone in Rome’s Campo Verano cemetery has 

been designed to reflect his religious beliefs. It features a cross, a 

request that visitors pray for his soul, and a Chi-Rho symbol, which 

combines the first two letters of the Greek word for Christ

FIRBANK’S FAITH 

Ronald Firbank was received into the Catholic Church on 6 December 1907, when he was a 

21-year-old undergraduate at Cambridge. Five years before, to improve his French, he had lived 

for some ten months in Tours, and this early exposure to Catholic culture seems to have made an 

impression on him. When he returned to England, he indulged his already lively enthusiasm for 

the works of Wilde, Huysmans and other fin de siècle writers, but his reading began to be leavened 

with works of religion, most notably the devotional handbook The Imitation of Christ, by the 

fifteenth-century German monk Thomas à Kempis. These first signs of religious awakening are 

reflected in his early stories. ‘The Wavering Disciple,’ for example, opens with a Duchess reading 

The Imitation ‘to soothe,’ she claims, ‘a sort of yearning.’ 

The strength and sincerity of Firbank’s commitment to his new faith has been called into 

question by some commentators, who suggest that he was much too naturally irreverent to have 

taken it seriously, and that his was a superficial aesthetic conversion, rather than a deep-seated 

spiritual one. In other words, they claim that he was attracted merely by the liturgical display and 

devotional excesses of high Catholicism. Certainly throughout his life he preferred a traditional 

Catholic ambiance. Shane Leslie recalled that at Cambridge Firbank ‘declined to hear Mass in the 

low-ceilinged Chapel for Catholic undergraduates as his soul could only expand under a soaring 

vault!’ The London churches in his novels were invariably those which offered their congregations 

an imposing mise-en-scène, such as the Brompton Oratory (in Inclinations and Caprice) or Farm 

Street (in Inclinations again). 

It is drawing a rather long bow, however, to argue that Firbank’s preference for rich 

ceremonial and devotional practice somehow compromised the sincerity of his conversion. Ifan 

Kyrle Fletcher wrote that ‘the explanation afforded by the aesthetic satisfaction of the Church ritual 

is not upheld by the testimony of a friend who met him in Paris in 1910 and found that the service 

made no appeal to him, but that he was still profoundly moved by the mystic element of religion.’ 

This is an important clue to Firbank’s religious sensibility. He was drawn to Catholicism, and 

stayed privately loyal to it, to the extent that it satisfied his pronounced taste for mysticism. When 

his Cambridge friend Vyvyan Holland took him to see Robert Hugh Benson, it did not take Father 

Benson at all long to convince him that Catholicism was his true mystical home. 

121

122 

The 35-year-old Benson was himself a Catholic convert, the son of a former Archbishop 

of Canterbury, and came from a family well versed in the occult. His father had founded a Ghost 

Society. His uncle Henry Sidgwick had founded the Society for Psychical Research, of which his 

aunt later became President. His mother claimed to have had a considerable number of psychic 

experiences. When he was himself an undergraduate, Benson began to experiment with hypnotism 

‒ then more commonly referred to as ‘mesmerism’ ‒ but desisted when his mother threatened to tell 

his father. At the time Firbank knew him, Benson had begun to write ghost stories with Catholic 

themes. Shane Leslie paints a disturbing picture of him at this time: ‘Benson exactly appreciated 

the mixture of fear and fun which goes to the making of true religion…I can see him sitting in 

the firelight of my room at King’s, unravelling a weird story about demoniacal substitution, his 

eyeballs staring into the flame, and his nervous fingers twitching to baptise the next undergraduate 

he could thrill or mystify into the fold of Rome.’ 

Benson enchanted Firbank with his flower-filled rooms, strange stories and knowledge 

of the occult. Brigid Brophy has correctly observed that ‘the influence of Benson on Firbank 

deserves more explanation than Firbank scholars have allowed.’ When he received Firbank into 

the Church, it was into a particularly fraught and mystical version of Catholicism, and in return 

Firbank presented Benson with a finely-printed copy of The Imitation of Christ, inscribed ‘For 

Father Benson in gratitude & affection from Arthur Firbank.’ 

Over the next few years, Firbank strayed into mystical areas not approved by conventional 

Catholicism, including crystal-gazing and other kinds of fortune-telling. His native Irish superstition 

found an outlet in his fascination with Egyptian talismans and magic. For a short time he became 

involved with Aleister Crowley, and he even began to explore the world of diabolism. These 

interests are reflected in his very earliest novels, and we recall, for example, that Miss Massingham 

in Vainglory is the author of a book entitled Sacerdotalism and Satanism. After only a very few 

years, however, Firbank largely lost interest in these phenomena. Several Firbank commentators 

have argued that his interest in mysticism was incompatible with Catholicism, and demonstrated 

his movement away from the Church, but there is no evidence that Firbank himself saw it that way. 

In this respect he remained a faithful disciple of Robert Hugh Benson. 

While Firbank was always discreet about his religious beliefs, religion was certainly front and 

centre in his books, and he clearly found Catholic attitudes and practices inexhaustibly amusing. 

‘Oh, the charm, the flavour of the religious world!’ he editorialised in The Flower Beneath the 

Foot. ‘Where match it for interest or variety!’ 

It is somehow dissatisfying to class Firbank’s novels merely as satires or parodies. Some 

critics have discerned their roots in Restoration comedy, but their structure is much closer to the 

sotie, which had flourished in sixteenth-century France and which Firbank’s contemporary André 

Gide had also revived in his 1914 novel Les Caves du Vatican. In a typical sotie, the location is 

vague or symbolic, the language allusive and stylised, and the tone somewhat directionless and 

whimsical. The sotie has no linear story leading to a clear dénouement, but a series of verbal 

exchanges which constitute a telling commentary on some social or political target. Firbank’s 

refinement was to impose upon the sotie a thick overlay of camp.

Susan Sontag, in her influential 1964 essay on camp, recognised its central paradox: that it has 

a love and fascination for the people and institutions it is ostensibly ridiculing. ‘Just as drag queens 

adore the tragic divas that they travesty,’ wrote Ellis Hanson, ‘so ecclesiastical camp springs to the 

defence of the one true Church.’ And just as drag queens are all the funnier when they stumble or 

reveal theatrically the underlying incongruity of their sexual identity, Firbank preferred the Church 

in disrepair. Like Lady Anne Pantry in Vainglory, he ‘couldn’t bear the Cathedral without a few 

sticks and props.’ 

Tellingly, Firbank neither mocks the theological tenets of Catholicism, nor its most sacred 

ritual, the Eucharist. Rather, he confines himself to the sumptuous externals. Cathedrals feature 

in all his novels ‒ even in Prancing Nigger, in which the principal characters are Baptists ‒ as do 

their stained glass windows (what a loss it is that no one takes up Miss Wookie’s idea in Vainglory 

of a Ballets Russes window). Nunneries loom over every town: the Convent of the Holy Dove, 

the Convent of the Flaming-Hood, and Princess Zoubaroff’s Convent of Monte Serravizza (‘It’s 

nothing but backbiting from morning to night’), all of them hotbeds of lesbianism and recreational 

flagellation. Odd miracles are recounted ‒ one woman ‘engendering a missel-thrush through the 

channel of her nose’ ‒ and tourists inspect ‘a feather from the Archangel Gabriel’s wing’ and other 

such relics. Firbank’s later novels are clearly influenced by Norman Douglas’s South Wind, which 

had sent up saints and relics in this way. 

It is important to note that, after Firbank has dropped his early interest in diabolism, 

his characters are invariably portrayed as naughty rather than evil. The most likeable ‒ Laura 

de Nazianzi in The Flower Beneath the Foot, Cherif in Santal, and Charlie Mouth in Prancing 

Nigger, for example ‒ are uncynically seeking solace in religion. Cardinal Pirelli’s judgement is 

faulty and his fondness for drag inappropriate, but he is neither evil nor a great sinner, and he is 

ultimately redeemed. Adolescent boys think nothing of casually prostituting themselves: Peter 

Passer, Chicklet, Charlie Mouth and Angelo (who, Firbank makes a point of mentioning, comes 

from Taormina). Sex and transvestism are seen as all-pervasive and hardly worth commenting 

upon. When Firbank indulges in smut ‒ not uncommon in his late work ‒ it is so allusive and 

fleeting that the majority of his editors and readers are unlikely to have noticed it. In Valmouth, 

the ‘curly-pated enfant de coeur’ Charlie mentions in passing that ‘Father often wipes his pen in 

my hair’ ‒ presumably when Father is writing at his desk ‒ and when Cardinal Pirelli learns that 

his cathedral dancing-boys are unwell, he decides to take them some melons ‘and, perhaps, a 

cucumber.’ These throwaway remarks are eyebrow-raising, but they are hardly diabolic. 

The enterprising young bookdealer Ifan Kyrle Fletcher published his compelling and 

sympathetic ‘memoir’ only four years after Firbank’s death in 1926: ‘Firbank was always reticent 

about his beliefs and his religious activities. At the time that he left Cambridge he spoke to a few 

friends about his connection with the Church. In later years it was a subject which he avoided, 

and...he confided in no one.’ Lord Berners, who knew Firbank only in the final years of the latter’s 

life, wrote that he ‘had never for a moment imagined that Firbank was a Roman Catholic. His 

attitude towards the Church of Rome both in his conversation and his writings was distinctly 

heretical...more than once he had said to me, “The Church of Rome wouldn’t have me and so I 

laugh at her”.’ 

123

Leaving aside Berners’s notorious unreliability and the improbabilities and hyperbole 

(‘heretical’) in these few sentences, it is entirely to be expected that Firbank will have hidden 

his religious beliefs from his worldly and potentially derisive acquaintances. For much of the 

twentieth century, the homosexual community had necessarily to be secretive, and those among 

them who were practising Catholics had to keep a secret within a secret. Cases similar to Firbank’s 

are legion. Vaslav Nijinsky was at the very centre of Diaghilev’s bed-hopping entourage, but he 

wrote later in his diary that he always wore a crucifix around his neck: ‘I wore it to show that I 

was a Catholic.’ Jack Kerouac, who excised the homosexual episodes from his book On the Road, 

described it as ‘really a story about two Catholic buddies roaming the country in search of God,’ 

and always insisted ‘I’m not a beatnik, I’m a Catholic.’ Andy Warhol created ground-breaking 

transgressive films, while regularly attending Catholic services. All these men will have seen the 

pointlessness of discussing their Catholicism with their irreligious friends and colleagues. 

While Firbank thought of himself as a Catholic throughout his adult life, he often went for 

long periods without attending church services. ‘One isn’t always inclined for church!’ exclaims 

Mrs Pet in Vainglory. Inevitably this led to regular crises of faith ‒ quite different, of course, from 

a loss of faith altogether. Many years later, his friend Evan Morgan wrote that on occasion the two 

of them had visited the crypt under St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, where Firbank had ‘spent long 

hours on his knees.’ After a visit to Carthage in 1920 Firbank wrote to his mother of the martyrs 

‘in the first century of our beautiful Christian era,’ and a few months later he was in Naples: ‘This 

morning I went to the Cathedral for Mass and it was wonderful ‒ so many candles all alight at the 

same time I’d never seen before! and the music was wonderful. I went too to St. Chiara but the 

Mass was over.’ Soon, however, his doubts began again, and he lamented that ‘my chief regret 

at present is that I have no Religion.’ Nevertheless, when he settled in Bordighera the following 

year to write Prancing Nigger, he took care to arrange for the local village priest to bless his villa. 

In his lively letters to his mother and sister, Firbank had no inhibitions about mentioning 

his religion and the doubts that regularly assailed him. When he died in Rome, having just turned 

forty, his friend Lord Berners arranged with the Consul to have him buried in that city’s Protestant 

cemetery. His sister Heather, when she learnt of this mistake, arranged in the face of long delays 

and bureaucratic complication to have him transferred to Rome’s Catholic cemetery in Campo 

Verano. It is reasonable to assume that Heather ‒ herself a non-Catholic ‒ would not have gone 

to all this considerable trouble without a firm conviction that it was what her brother would have 

wanted. 

Robert Scoble 

May 2016 

124

RONALD FIRBANK

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