CHATWIN, Bruce. On The Black Hill. London Jonathan Cape. 1982

8vo.; original grey linson boards lettered gilt to spine, in pictorial dustwrapper with wrap-around design; pp. [viii], 9-248 + [i]; a near fine copy with the smallest lean and slim (3mm) horizontal fading to tail of spine, in a remarkably fresh, unclipped, dustwrapper (£7.50), with the usual sun-lightening to spine.

First edition. A novel told in flashback set on an isolated upland farm on the border of Herefordshire and Radnorshire. It explores themes of unrequited love, sexual, social, and cultural repression, hatred, and prejudice, by developing the relationship between twin brothers. It won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Whitbread First Novel of the Year Award in its year of publication. It was also adapted to the stage in 1986 and to film, directed by Andrew Grieve, in 1987, starring Bob Peck and Gemma Jones.