DAHL, ROALD (author). Michel SIMEON (illustrator). James and the Giant Peach. A Children’s Story. London; George Allen & Unwin Ltd.

8vo.; original pictorial laminated boards with wraparound design in colours; pp. [vi], 7-110 + [ii]; with bold black-and-white illustrations printed both full- and half-page, by Simeon; an exceptionally fresh copy of a notoriously vulnerable and popular book with covers just a little uniform faded; externally fine with no wear visible and no damage at all to the friable laminate, either at the joints or elsewhere; internally equally fine, crisp and clean.

First UK edition, issued without a dustwrapper and appearing six years after the US edition by Alfred A. Knopf of New York. The British edition has alternative illustrations to the American, which has artwork by Nancy Ekholm Burkert.

This was Dahl’s first full-length children’s book, following his picture book for the young, “The Gremlins” of 1943.  Despite achieving good sales across the Atlantic, British publishers repeatedly turned it down, regarding it as too edgy, subversive, wild and unorthodox to suit British children’s tastes.