DANCING LEDGE

First edition, first printing. Paperback original. Signed by the author. Original illustrated card wrappers designed by Tamara Features Ltd with photography by Jody Boulting. A near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the spine without any creasing, showing just a little wear to edges and corners and a minor bump to the upper spine tip. Loosely laid in are a number of Jarman-related newspaper cuttings from the early 1990s. A very nice copy. Uncommon in signed or inscribed state.

Boldly inscribed by Derek Jarman in black ink to the front endpaper "To Ronnie / best wishes / Derek J". Dancing Ledge, Jarman's first book, is the closest he came to writing a traditional autobiography. Like the later books, however, it is a collage of sorts, compiled from diaries, notebooks, daybooks and film scripts from the 1940s to the 1980s, covering family, childhood, life as an artist and filmmaker, and friends and contemporaries including David Hockney, Ossie Clarke and Patrick Proktor. The volume is generously illustrated with black and white photographs throughout.