Trial and Error -
Anthony Berkeley
1937 - Hodder and Stoughton Limited, London - First Edition
Dedicated to P. G. Wodehouse.
‘Non-descript, upstanding Mr Todhunter is told that he has only months to live. He decides to commit a murder for the good of mankind. Finding a worthy victim proves far from easy, and there is a false start before he settles on and dispatches his target. But then the police arrest an innocent man, and the honourable Todhunter has to set about proving himself guilty of the murder.’ Anthony Berkeley (Anthony Berkeley Cox 1893-1971), who also wrote under the pseudonym ‘Francis Iles’, was a British crime writer and a leading member of the genre's Golden Age. Educated at Sherborne School and University College London, Berkeley served in the British army during WWI before becoming a journalist. His first novel, The Layton Court Murders, was published anonymously in 1925. It introduced Roger Sheringham, the amateur detective who features in many of the author's novels including the classic Poisoned Chocolates Case. In 1930, Berkeley founded the legendary Detection Club in London along with Agatha Christie, Freeman Wills Crofts and other established mystery writers. It was in 1938, under the pseudonym Francis Iles (which Berkeley also used for novels) that he took up work as a book reviewer for John O'London's Weekly and The Daily Telegraph. He later wrote for The Sunday Times in the mid-1940s, and then for The Guardian from the mid-1950s until 1970.
Provenance: Marion B. Graham with her contemporary signature dated 1937.
Octavo (book size 19.9x13.5cm), pp. 528. In publisher’s pale blue cloth, lettered in dark blue to spine and front board. Condition: Near fine, small split to head and tail of spine, slightly over-opened at title page. Ref: 109280 Price: HK$ 2,800
‘Non-descript, upstanding Mr Todhunter is told that he has only months to live. He decides to commit a murder for the good of mankind. Finding a worthy victim proves far from easy, and there is a false start before he settles on and dispatches his target. But then the police arrest an innocent man, and the honourable Todhunter has to set about proving himself guilty of the murder.’ Anthony Berkeley (Anthony Berkeley Cox 1893-1971), who also wrote under the pseudonym ‘Francis Iles’, was a British crime writer and a leading member of the genre's Golden Age. Educated at Sherborne School and University College London, Berkeley served in the British army during WWI before becoming a journalist. His first novel, The Layton Court Murders, was published anonymously in 1925. It introduced Roger Sheringham, the amateur detective who features in many of the author's novels including the classic Poisoned Chocolates Case. In 1930, Berkeley founded the legendary Detection Club in London along with Agatha Christie, Freeman Wills Crofts and other established mystery writers. It was in 1938, under the pseudonym Francis Iles (which Berkeley also used for novels) that he took up work as a book reviewer for John O'London's Weekly and The Daily Telegraph. He later wrote for The Sunday Times in the mid-1940s, and then for The Guardian from the mid-1950s until 1970.
Provenance: Marion B. Graham with her contemporary signature dated 1937.
Octavo (book size 19.9x13.5cm), pp. 528. In publisher’s pale blue cloth, lettered in dark blue to spine and front board. Condition: Near fine, small split to head and tail of spine, slightly over-opened at title page. Ref: 109280 Price: HK$ 2,800