Leaky Establishment by Langford David, First Edition (6 results)

Soft cover. Condition: Very Good ++. George Parkin (cover) (illustrator). First Thus. 216 page send-UP of the nuclear power industry. Set somewhere in England, in a town called Bogley where the pricipal industry is NUTC - Nuclear Utilization Technology Centre. The two lead (please avoid the pun) characters are Roy and Lizzie Tappen. The year is likely 1977. (The novel first appeared in 1984.) If you see Terry Pratchett between the lines, the effect is intentional. Read more about : Catastrophe Theory, kilotons, R-Week, Green Crossbones Code, the Mushroom Cloud pub where Fairey Liquid is the beverage of choice, and Trident Ice Lolly. UNillustrated. Cond : Paper wrapper is black with yellow lettering. Cover graphic shows a mushroom cloud, some wayward atoms, and redundant officials escaping a waste-paper basket. Edges, corners, and spine are all sharp. Very light soiling. No creases, tears, nor names. Flies open slightly - else a collectible copy. Quote (p. 91) : " ._._. and hoped the glove seals didn't chance to fail. The five looked suitably intimidated, especially at Fortmayne's casual explanation that all you needed for a fatal criticality incident and radiation overdose was to let a few pieces of plutonium close ._._._. ." Size: 8vo.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good-. First Edition. Rubbing, toning, edge foxing. Dust jacket with rubbing, toning, foxing. Uncommon. Photo on request. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall.

Hardback: 8¾" x 5¾". Condition: Near Fine: Small signs of wear. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. Cover Art: Uncredited (illustrator). 1st Edition. © 1984: A stand-alone novel by David Langford. 1st edition, 1st printing:- Synopsis: Roy Tappen had a nice, placid Civil Service job, designing nukes for Britain's big atomic base at Robinson Heath. That was before Operation Filing Cabinet. Security men want to fondle Tappen's thighs, half the base is on the fiddle, the Press Office is working on a cuddlier public image for plutonium, the Queen's visit is an uproarious disaster and there's the growing embarrassment of a nuclear arms stockpile in Tappen's own spare bedroom. Further complications include siege catapults, flying saucers, John Peel, the slowest Space Invaders game on earth, Winnie-the Warhead and the Fat Man Effect. As the black comedy piles up and Britain's position in the arms race drops behind Upper Volta's, Tappen wonders if he shouldn't change his name to Strangelove:- Review(s): "Imagine Tom Sharpe with nuclear weaponry instead of the vibrators and inflatable sex dolls":- (original cost £8.95).

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. First edition first printing. Hardback book is tight clean and square. with sharp spine ends. Boards clean and sharp. Title gilt perfect. Text block clean, with lightly toned edges. Pages clean and unmarked. Feels gently read. Fine condition. Jacket near fine, no major issues, just a little evidence of handling. Signed by author to the title page. For grading accuracy books are photographed without a protective book cover. This book is fitted with a non adhesive archival quality book protector to make a quality addition to your collection. Note we do not use stock images, the book pictured is the book described. A great signed copy of this comic novel by Dave Langford (yes, he of Ansible fame and stalwart of fandom), a worker at a nuclear research department takes home a filing cabinet not realising it has a nuclear warhead left in a drawer by a colleague who needed to put it somewhere so he could go to lunch. Signed by Author(s).

Hardcover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. The book has soiling and tanning to the edges of the page block. The dust jacket has slight soiling to the white background and is unclipped (L8.95). Signed by the author on the title page. Signed by Author(s).

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. First edition. SIGNED and dated (1987) by the author with "all the radioactive best." Mild age-toning to the text, as usual, else fine; in a near fine dust jacket. David Langford draws upon his first job as a physicist at the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston, Berkshire from 1975 to 1980, to create a comic novel about the bomb. "Roy Tappen borrows a filing cabinet from work to use at home and unknowingly also takes home a plutonium warhead. He spends the rest of the book trying to infiltrate the warhead back where it belongs without Security or his boss discovering it ever left the facility. Tappen soon explains why his warhead in its aluminum jacket is no more dangerous than a lot of household items. From then on Langford is free to treat the plutonium core like any of the other humorous icons whose appearance at the right moment in the story is good for a chuckle. Jokes are set up and triggered in the deft Langford style, at the pace of about a joke per paragraph."--Mike Glyer. Signed by Author(s).