Published by Methuen, London; 1986. 8vo. 304pp. First edition, first impression. Condition: Fine/Fine
Bound in original black cloth boards, with title in gilt to the spine. The binding is square and tight and in excellent condition with just a touch of bumping to the spine ends. Inside, the pages are clean and bright, free from blemishes and damage and barely a hint of toning. There are a 24 previously unpublished black and white photos throughout the book.
The book is housed in its original, first issue dust jacket, which is also in very smart condition. It is vibrant and bright, with just one small mark to the bottom of the front panel and just a hint of bumping to the spine ends.
In all, this is a very smart, collectible example of this first edition, edited by John Lahr. Joe Orton wrote some of the most outrageously funny plays of the sixties, including Loot and What the Butler Saw. He was killed by his long time lover, Kenneth Halliwell, who then also took his own life. John Lahr wrote Price Up Your Ears, Joe Orton's biography. This work is a chronicle of Orton's life collated from his diaries, kept from December 1966 until his murder in August 1967, and they provide one of the most candid and unfettered accounts of that period. They tell the tale, not only of his literary success, but of his personal life, from his sexual escapades in the most unexpected of places, to the breakdown of his sixteen year relationship with Halliwell. These diaries are Orton's last major work, available for the first time nearly twenty years after his death (blurb).