comedy and the like

The Lure of the Limerick – William S Baring-Gould.

Published by Rupert Hart-Davis, London in 1969. Squat quarto, 143 pages, very good condition.

If you have made it through life without a few limericks “up your sleeve”, then you are missing out. Limericks by nature are often a bit rude … well crude – but that’s the point.

Imagine that ghastly dinner party, or better still a business lunch or annual get-together. It’s all a bit tired and predictable and, maybe fortified out it pops ….

“There was a young student of Johns

Who wanted to bugger the swans.

But the loyal hall porter

Said, “Sir, take my daughter.

Them birds are reserved for the dons”

If there is complete silence – regard that as success!

Rest assured some contain Australia – just not as good.

Limericks – become an expert overnight.

$30.00

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Monty Python’s Flying Circus – Just the Words [A Lie] – 2 Volumes Complete

First editions hardback [soft cover more common] published by Methuen in 1989.

Thick perfect bound, 325, 349 pages, laminated pictorial boards. Inside toned as always, the nature of the paper used.

We say “A Lie” in or title because there are illustrations from Python photographs in each volume – quite humorous if you get their wit.

Enough Python to get you through the winter and/or improve your skills at confusing others. Our favourite sketch – “Ten Seconds of Sex”

Double Python – feels rather greedy.

$40.00

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D.H. Lawrence’s John Thomas & Lady Jane – According to Spike Milligan – First Edition

First edition published by Michael Joseph, London in 1995.

John Thomas and Lady Jane was another take on Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence but was not published during his lifetime – after all the was quiet a curfuffle regarding Lady C and Lawrence hardly made a cent out of it.

Here Spike produces a surprising reprise of John Thomas and Lady Jane and we doubt if any of the bawdy references are omitted although a quite a few humorous elements are inserted [anti-pun intended]

A good clean copy [pun intended] octavo, 169 pages, good jacket, super condition.

Spike and D.H.L. – well he did re-write the Bible.

$35.00

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P.G. Wodehouse – A Few Quick Ones – First Edition

Sought after First Edition published in 1959 by Herbert Jenkins, London.

Octavo, 207 pages, a good copy with the odd mark here and there. Sound dust jacket [best form], the sign of a bump lower spine. Retailers label front board, unseen.

A worthwhile copy of a hilarious collection of wit from the maestro Wodehouse – Jeeves makes an appearance for selective fans. Our favourite “Offy, Freddie and The Beef Trust”

P.G. Wodehouse – First Edition – Ten stories and hundreds of laughs – we need them!

SO SORRY SOLD

$40.00

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The Dog’s Ear Book – Geoffrey Wilans and Ronald Searle

Published in 1958 by Max Parrish, London

Octavo, 107 pages illustrated throughout by the wittiest pen-smith Searle. Nice jacket, very good condition generally.

Probably a book for a “dog lover”, there are a few around.

Includes various snippets under the umbrella headings – Doggy Types; The History of the Dog [including something from a Tudor manuscript]; How to Make a Pal or Influence Your Dog; Do You Resemble a Dog? The Great Dog Campaign; Cruft’s and after; Doggy Problems; How to Take Your Dog Away for the Weekend; Beagling and finally the, all important, “A Dictionary of Dog terms.

Genuinely interesting and amusing.

The Dog – its not all about Cruft’s.

$35.00

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The True-born English-man: A Satyr – Daniel Defoe – This Copy Published in 1716

A rare item by Daniel Defoe. The scarce “enlarged” edition printed and sold by James Roberts, London in 1716.

Pocket sized 12 mo, 12, 26 pages, bound in contemporary calf backed boards, some age and wear but solid and rare in this original state.

First edition thus. After the accession of Hanover Defoe added a new passage of 49 lines satirising the English temper. It was hastily published and contains a number of hasty error which ironically confirm its pedigree

A True-born English-man, satirical poem of length about xenophobia … a few could learn from it today. Dutch born William of Orange has become King of England, and there was much tittle tattle about his lack of English-ness. Defoe, forever a wit, wrote this is support of old William of Orange, ridiculing the notion of English racial purity. Well the evidence is there.

Defoe … much quoted from his opening rant

“that het’rogeneous thing, an Englishman:
In eager rapes, and furious lust begot
Betwixt a painted Britain and a Scot
Whose gend’ring off-spring quickly learn’d to bow,
And yoke their heifers to the Roman plough:
From whence a mongrel half-bred race there came,
With neither name, nor nation, speech nor fame.
In whose hot veins new mixtures quickly ran,
Infused betwixt a Saxon and a Dane
While their rank daughters, to their parents just,
Receiv’d all nations with promiscuous lust.
This nauseous brood directly did contain
The well-extracted blood of Englishmen.”

Daniel Defoe and his True-born a delicious antiquarian rarity … over three hundred year old!

$280.00

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The Lure of the Limerick – William S Baring-Gould.

Monty Python’s Flying Circus – Just the Words [A Lie] – 2 Volumes Complete

D.H. Lawrence’s John Thomas & Lady Jane – According to Spike Milligan – First Edition

P.G. Wodehouse – A Few Quick Ones – First Edition

The Dog’s Ear Book – Geoffrey Wilans and Ronald Searle

The True-born English-man: A Satyr – Daniel Defoe – This Copy Published in 1716

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