£120
FIRST EDITION, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR, ALS LOOSELY INSERTED, 8vo, pp. 192. Original red boards, spine lettered in gilt, colour-printed dustjacket. Dustjacket somewhat sunned to spine panel. Inscribed to flyleaf: ‘Pamela Bell. With all good wishes Gill. May, 1977’, double-sided folded ALS from the author to Pamela dated 14 December 1979.
The first edition of this young-adult time-travel book, inscribed to fellow writer of young adult fiction Pamela Bell, nee Whitlock, co-author and illustrator of The Far-Distant Oxus and its sequels. In addition to her fiction, Gillian Avery (1926-2016) wrote several histories of children's literature. This book is unusual among her work for its science-fictional elements (the majority of her fiction was historical, mainly Victorian in setting): the title character uses a time machine on other members of her dysfunctional family, resulting in them becoming possessed by the personalities of ancestors with calamitous - but ultimately reversible - results. It is particularly scarce signed, and especially so with a resonant association like this.
Pamela Whitlock (1920-1982) met her co-author Katharine Hull at boarding school and while there they wrote a children's adventure in the style of Arthur Ransome, centred around ponies on Exmoor. Whitlock sent the manuscript to Ransome who was so impressed he wrote an introduction and convinced Cape to publish it in 1937. It sold well and two sequels followed, but the books fell out of print and were rediscovered and reissued starting in 2008. In the meantime Whitlock had married John Bell, children's book editor for OUP, a plausible line of connection to Gillian Avery, who also worked for OUP. Avery's letter thanks Bell for her suggestions of 20s and 30s reading, and discusses the appeal of 'The Far-Distant Oxus'.
