ANTHEM [Signed by the author]

Tim Binding

ISBN 10: 0330487450 / ISBN 13: 9780330487450

Published by Picador, London, 2003

About this Item

First impression of the true first edition. Signed by the author on the title page. ***Near fine in blue cloth-covered boards with gilt titles to spine. Maroon front and rear free pastedowns and endpapers. Sharp corners. No bumps. No foxing. Paper slightly tanned. Pages clean. No inscriptions. Spine tight. ***In a near fine colour-illustrated dustwrapper that has not been price-clipped, showing original publisher's price of £16.99. Top of spine of dustwrapper slightly creased. No tears. Rear and front panels of dustwrapper bright. ***242 x160 mm. 407 pages. ***'Spring 1982. Anglefield Road is a peaceful cul-de-sac in a suburban town north of London, with four houses looking out on each other. But when Argentina invades an obscure British colony, the Falklands, provoking a national crisis and a patriotic revival, the repercussions for the residents of Anglefield Road reach far beyond the events of that momentous summer. Enthralling, moving, darkly funny and humane, Anthem is a triumphant account of ordinary people and war, as the lives of four families are reshaped by a dispute over a group of small, barren islands at the bottom of the world.' ***A first impression of the true first edition, signed by the author, in its original dustwrapper, in nice collectable condition. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.

Seller Inventory # 6884

Bibliographic Details

• Title: ANTHEM [Signed by the author]
• Publisher: Picador, London
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0330487450
• ISBN 13: 9780330487450
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Signed & Limited Editions
  • Literature
  • First Editions

About this title

Synopsis

In 1952, in London's last great fog, a small boy, Henry Armstrong, is separated from his mother. Thirty years later, as a bandsman in the Royal Marines and bound for the Falklands, he still has not found her. Meanwhile, the life of Henry's childhood friend, shoe salesman Richard Roach, is in crisis. He is missing all of his targets; his feckless and impotent teenage son despises him; and his wife, Ellen, no longer bothers to mask her indifference when he returns each night to their home at the end of Anglefield Road. Richard wants to make things better somehow, but he has little idea where to begin. Richard's neighbour, Suzanne Plimsoll, on the other hand, just wants out: out of her marriage, out of the accusing stares of her stepdaughter, out most of all of Anglefield Road. For her, real life only exists onboard the ocean liner on which she works, her beloved Canberra. When the ship is requisitioned to transport troops to the Falklands and she volunteers to go along, she finally glimpses a means of escape.Freddie Millen's difficulties run, perhaps, less deep. Still, his obsession with lawns, has caused no small measure of strain to his marriage . . . ANTHEM is a heartrending and at times surprisingly amusing story of the horrors of war - at home and abroad - and, finally, of a long delayed reunion that takes place in the most surprising of circumstances.

About the Author

Tim Binding was born in Germany in 1947. He is the author of In the Kingdom of Air, A Perfect Execution, Island Madness, On Ilkley Moor, Anthem and Man Overboard. He lives in Kent with his wife and daughter.