Benjamin's Open Day.

White (Jane)

Benjamin's Open Day.

Description: FIRST EDITION, pp. [iv], 186, crown 8vo, original sage green boards, backstrip lettered in black, a couple of tiny spots to top edge, dustjacket, near fine

Publication Details: Hamish Hamilton, 1979

Notes: [With:] The original design for the dustjacket, by John Lawrence: ink and watercolour on paper with some pencil sketching visible, a couple of small uses of white for correction, but the palette (as outlined in a couple of dabs on the rear panel) grey and pink, folded around the book to form a dummy of the dustjacket. Though largely forgotten, Jane White published a handful of novels - many of which were concerned with, and written for, adolescents with, as the blurb on the printed dustjacket puts it 'an element of horror [...] running through them'. In the present work the protagonist, a mis...more[With:] The original design for the dustjacket, by John Lawrence: ink and watercolour on paper with some pencil sketching visible, a couple of small uses of white for correction, but the palette (as outlined in a couple of dabs on the rear panel) grey and pink, folded around the book to form a dummy of the dustjacket. Though largely forgotten, Jane White published a handful of novels - many of which were concerned with, and written for, adolescents with, as the blurb on the printed dustjacket puts it 'an element of horror [...] running through them'. In the present work the protagonist, a misfit - who 'keeps rabbits' and 'is also interested in fire: very interested indeed' - exercises the latter interest only in wreaking revenge on the boys and masters that make his life a misery at his 'exclusive public school'.The dustjacket is an attractive design by John Lawrence, his original sketch broadly similar to the printed version, but with some differences in the detail that confirm it as an early version. Lawrence is one of the foremost British illustrators of the last fifty years; his work includes illustrations for Philip Pullman, Susan Hill's 'The Woman in Black', books for The Whittington Press and The Fleece Press, and 'Watership Down', as well as his own 'Rabbit and Pork' (there are also two small rabbits in the corner of the present design, reflecting Benjamin's interest, should we be searching for recurrent themes). HIDE