Brighton [Inscribed]

Osbert Sitwell and Margaret Barton. Dust jacket designed by Rex Whistler.

Faber and Faber and Limited. London. 1935. First edition. Inscribed by Osbert Sitwell in ink to front free endpaper - 'For Miss Hester Leggatt, in friendship, May - 1935. Osbert Sitwell'. Hardback, octavo; red cloth-bound boards, with green title label to spine, t.e.g., dust jacket. 374 pages. 16 hors texte b&w plates. English. 230 x 155mm. 0.75kg. . Very good, in very good dust jacket; slight wear to edges of jacket, light toning and some fading to spine, small 2cm pink mark to lower front panel, not price-clipped; slight spotting to endpapers, slight lean to spine.

A biography of Brighton written by Osbert Sitwell and Margaret Barton. The text relates the journey of Brighton from village to city. Much of the author's focus is on its Regency hey-dey, as is the jacket design by Rex Whistler which depicts the Royal Pavilion surrounded by rococo embellishments. This copy is inscribed 'in friendship' to Hester Leggatt by Sitwell. Through initial research it is possible that she is the same Hester Leggett [sic] whose role as head of the MI5 secretarial unit is re-created in the film Operation Mincemeat.

[Further reading: Whistler, Laurence & Ronald Fuller, 'The Work of Rex Whistler', 1960, no. 478]