CROSSLEY-HOLLAND, Kevin; Norman ACKROYD, [Illus.]~ Moored Man. Poems of North Norfolk. Inscribed by the poet.

FIRST EDITION. Enitharmon Editions, London: 2006

Large 4to., burgundy boards lettered vertically in gilt along backstrip; matching endpapers; in the original unclipped pictorial dustwrapper (£25.00) featuring an illustration of Ackroyd’s ‘Blakeney’ (2004); numerous in-text, full and double page watercolours and etchings by Norman Ackroyd; THE BOOK fine in like DUSTWRAPPER. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First edition, inscribed by the author “-for Jill - and John - His line about you and now if not always with love, Kevin, March 2013 Cambridge”. The recipients are Jill Paton Walsh and her husband, the author John Rowe Townsend. A series of evocative poems, embodying the ethereal spirit of the Norfolk coast, by this poet, children’s author, and translator of Anglo-Saxon. Crossley-Holland is perhaps best known today for his Arthur trilogy (2000–2003), which won him the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 2001. The book is accompanied by a series of moody, bleak illustrations by Norman Ackroyd, some taken from sketchbooks used on visits to Norfolk between 2003 and 2004. Ackroyd was elected Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art in 2000, and received a CBE in 2007 for services to Engraving and Printing. “His feet are caked with creek mud, his shins are indigo. And yet Moored Man lifts his eyes across the slakes, across the waste and sees an island, riding.” A lovely association copy, scarce signed.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Fine
JACKET: Fine