The much-loved book on Change-Ringing. The first imprint of the classic text. This copy bears the bookplate of the library at Duke’s Denver and was presented to Lord Peter Wimsey with gratitude on the occasion of his participation in a full ring of…
A member of the Roxburghe and the Grolier Clubs in addition to the Bellona Club, Lord Peter assembled a truly exceptional collection of early printing at 110A Piccadilly in the 1920s. Although begun as a jeu d’esprit, and of extremely limited…
This is a copy that was bound in poison: the green is arsenic, and the red is cyanide. It is believed to have been made for the library at Duke’s Denver (for display only, of course) as a humorous birthday present for Harriet from young Lord…
The third of Harriet Vane’s mystery novels. She was writing this book at the time she was arrested for the murder of her lover, a coincidence that no doubt contributed to its spectacular success.
This is the first edition in its jacket.
The fifth of Harriet Vane’s mysteries, Death ‘Twixt Wind and Water was successful partly because of cleverness of the intricate mystery plot but mostly because of the verisimilitude of the new characters with which she peopled it. Her hero, Wilfred,…
Lord Peter’s observations on various methods of murder, both real and hypothetical, some of which are quite creative. Some of the schemes are matters of considerable ingenuity, such as “Murder by Depilatory” or “The Trampoline Trap.” More than one…
This book deals definitively with English prosody from Beowulf to Bridges. A magisterial work from a highly-respected Oxford don from Shrewsbury College, it benefited from substantial editorial work by Harriet Vane. The Times Literary Supplement…
While Harriet Vane was in post-graduate residence at Shrewsbury, she pursued work on the Irish writer Sheridan Le Fanu, a bookish young Victorian who managed to educate himself in a private library and became perhaps the premier ghost story writer of…