A Wicker Man Limited Edition: 100 Copies Only

NOW SOLD OUT

AN APPOINTMENT WITH

THE WICKER MAN

A STRICTLY LIMITED EDITION OF 100 NUMBERED COPIES FOR SALE

EACH WITH A HAND-PRINTED LINOCUT FRONTISPIECE

 

A strictly limited, never-to-be-reprinted edition of 100 hand-numbered copies for sale.

Each copy features a tipped-in frontispiece illustration, in the form of an individually hand-printed original linocut by Sharon Gosling.

With contributions from Amy Rafferty and Joel Morris.

A5 format, 24pp (including cover), printed on silk paper stock, and a cover printed on heavy Rives Shetland paper. With a frontispiece hand-printed on uncoated stock, tipped in by hand.

Like all great cult movies, it’s tricky to explain exactly why The Wicker Man continues to mean so much to its dedicated followers. It’s probably best not to overthink matters, and just revel in it all, which is what a lucky group of fans got to do on May Day 2023, gathering at the original Wicker Man site at Burrow Head in Scotland, exactly fifty years after the events in the film. This limited edition publication is a souvenir celebration of those events, which included the burning of a new Wicker Man created by local artist Amanda Sunderland. Alongside photos of the burning and a brief overview of the weekend, also included is a contribution from Joel Morris, of the band Candidate, who performed songs from the soundtrack, and a poem in the Scots Lallans dialect by Amy Rafferty, who has a very special connection to the film: she appeared as a baby in the churchyard scene. Each copy also includes an individually hand-printed linocut frontispiece of the original Wicker Man. Whether you were there on May Day 2023 or not, this is a unique and very limited piece of Wicker Man history...

THIS LIMITED EDITION IS NOW SOLD OUT. MANY THANKS TO ALL THE BUYERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD!

MORE PHOTOS BELOW...

Each copy comes with an individually hand-printed linocut by Sharon Gosling.
Here's a copy next to the linocut printing block. Please note that, as each linocut is printed and inked separately, exact colours and inking density may vary from the prints shown.


AN IMPORTANT ERRATUM NOTE!
Due to an unfortunate error (completely my fault) the artist who created the Wicker Man for the event, Amanda Sunderland, is incorrectly named (twice!) in the booklet as Amanda Sutherland. Many apologies: and thanks to Amanda for being so nice about it when she gently pointed it out.
(Apparently I'm not the first to make the mistake, and I doubt I'll be the last.)

Our previous limited editions have tended to sell out, so don't miss out on this one...

The Slave Race, featuring Philip K. Dick's first SF tale (not in his Collected Stories), sold out in a matter of days (details here).

Gods of Darkness, a never-reprinted tale of a Lovecraftian witch cult by F. Scott Fitzgerald also went out of print extremely quickly (details here).

Our two Lawrence of Arabia titles (see details here and here), were described by the T. E. Lawrence Society as "a very beautiful publication" and "a valuable piece of ephemera for your collection". 

The Ghost of the Private Theatricals, a newly discovered tale of terror by Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein (details here), was featured in the Times Literary Supplement, and also sold out quickly, with copies going to every continent except Antarctica!

Limited copies remain of At the Door of Darkness, a forgotten episode from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, deleted from the published version, and now reconstructed from the original manuscript. Details here.

My thanks go to Sharon Gosling for designing and printing the linocut frontispieces, and to Martin Stiff of Amazing15.com for his sublime design. All photographs are by Sharon Gosling and Adam Newell.
Just to be 100% clear, this publication is not licenced, prepared or approved by Canal+/Studio Canal or any entity associated with the film The Wicker Man. Neither is it in any way an 'official' publication of the 50th anniversary weekend that took place in Scotland, or associated fan groups. It is a personal celebration, with huge thanks to Amy Rafferty and Joel Morris for permission to include their written contributions.

WITHNAIL BOOKS IS TEN YEARS OLD!

Ten years ago I opened a second hand bookshop by mistake in Penrith, which obviously had to be called Withnail Books. During that decade I’ve sold (certainly) thousands of books to (probably) thousands of people. Some of them said some pretty memorable things: sometimes to me, sometimes to others, or indeed to themselves, as I sat quietly earwigging.

I just type it down folks… and it's become a book...

"These books and that? Are they just for decoration?" Actual Customer Quotes from a Secondhand Bookshop only exists as a couple of hard copies I made for my own entertainment, BUT, anyone who wants one can have a PDF/ebook version FOR FREE! Just email me at withnailbooks@btinternet.com and I'll send you one.

Here's a small sample...

“I went out with a girl who smelled of coconut once. Put me off coconut for life.”

“I can quite accurately date books by their smell. There’s a certain era of American books which are really smelly.”

(He’s quite right.)

“It’s very hard to find knitted vegetables.”

“Oh, he was borderline genius. He could read barcodes without the numbers.”

To her companion, who remained silent: “I love old books. I love to look at old books. I like the look of them. I’ll not be buying one mind. You’re not impressed by books, are you? I like the look of them though. Looking at them.”

“My mate is the world’s leading authority on parasitic wasps.”

Over his shoulder on leaving, after our long conversation about book collecting:

“You and me, we’re both patients in the same clinic...”

As the tenth incarnation of someone I admire once said, “I love a little shop.” In these days of internet-shopping-from-your-sofa-while-tweeting-and-watching-TV, it’s a refreshing change, I think, to occasionally go outside and have a poke about in an actual shop. Perhaps not even looking for anything in particular, but just giving yourself the chance to spot something you might fancy. Something you never knew you wanted.

Withnail Books aims to be this kind of “little shop,” and I’m always very pleased when customers give me unbidden comments along the lines of “what a great shop,” or, “you have an interesting selection of books.”

I’d like to thank all the people who have helped Withnail Books over the last ten years: customers of course, but also friends, family (including my Brunswick Yard family) and supporters on t’internet; too many to list individually, but you know who you are. Thank you all.

Special thanks though to my wonderful wife Sharon Gosling, who has been there from the very beginning, when “Withnail Books” was just words stamped on a leather key fob she’d bought to inspire me, and which is still in my pocket as I type this…

A (Very) Limited Edition Doctor Who Action Figure

This is the story of a very, very limited edition Doctor Who collectable (there is only one of them) which also happens to be The Best Present In The History Of Presents.

As I have mentioned to almost no-one over the years (really, I hardly ever mention it, ever), I WAS IN DOCTOR WHO ONCE!!

Long story short, I worked for one day as an extra on David Tennant's debut adventure, 'The Christmas Invasion', and am visible in the final scene for very nearly 13 and a half seconds. That's me, top right. I wander across screen, and as I look up at the fallout from the exploded Sycorax ship, I stroke my chin thoughtfully. (This was not in the script by the way; it was all my own work.)

If you want to read a very long two-part account of my day on set, you can do so HERE, but this post is about how my amazing wife Sharon took this fleeting moment of Doctor Who fame (which I may have mentioned to her occasionally) and turned it into the Best Present Ever, for my 50th birthday earlier this year. Here it is:

Isn't that something?

As you can well imagine, I was somewhat overcome when I unwrapped this present (during a Zoom call with my far-flung family, who knew what was coming and wanted to see my expression). Sharon had managed to keep the whole thing, months in the making, totally secret from me. It was a complete and wonderful surprise. 

Once Sharon had had the original idea to create a figure of the Chin-Stroking Man, she co-ordinated with a bunch of people to help bring it into existence. My family helped remember exactly what it was I was wearing that day, down to the colour of my shirt, belt and boots, and the tartan scarf — none of this is actually visible on screen of course, but they got it all dead right. My friends and fellow Whovians Mark, Johnny and Dave were on hand for creative input, including the 'backstory' for the Chin-Stroking Man/Temporal Archivist (originally created by the aforementioned Mark in a not-entirely-serious Outpost Gallifrey post just after the episode's transmission as I recall — seeing my rather relaxed pose, he posited that perhaps this mysterious chin-stroker was another Time Lord...).

Sharon made the (utterly perfect) box entirely by herself, but for the figure, after a key introduction by our mate Steve, she turned to the artist and sculptor Phill Hosking. I emailed Phill to say thank you, and he had this to say:

"I feel like I know you in a strange kind of way. Was a total pleasure to make the piece. I love working on things with meaning, and was great to see it through from idea right through to final painted model. All took a bit of working out with the clothes etc, so glad it was all accurate. Scarf was particularly interesting to paint. Really glad you liked it."

Yes Phill, I do like it. I love it! Phill also kindly shared a bunch of process shots, which I will post below. Sharon gave Phill some photo reference of me to help (as the screen grabs weren't much to go on!), and from the initial digital sculpt, through the 3D printing of the various parts, to the assembly and meticulous hand painting, it's fascinating to see it all come together.

You can find Phill on Instagram, where he posts his stunning art, both 2D and 3D, as eclecto2d and eclecto_3d

Thanks again to everyone who helped create The Best Present Ever, but especially to Sharon. I am a very lucky chap.

DISCLAIMER: In case it is not already blindingly obvious, I should probably point out that the Chin Stroking-Man figure is a one-off piece of celebratory 'fan art', is NOT for sale (and never will be!!!) and all copyrights, logos etc remain with their owners.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's Forgotten Tale of a Lovecraftian Witch Cult. A Limited Edition.

***SOLD OUT!***

She began to cry forth again.

"We'll burn his heart in pig's fat at the Sabbat!"...

— from 'Gods of Darkness' by F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD'S FORGOTTEN TALE OF A LOVECRAFTIAN WITCH CULT, NOT IN ANY EDITION OF HIS COLLECTED WORKS

A STRICTLY LIMITED EDITION OF 250 COPIES

***NOW SOLD OUT***

LIKE MOST OF OUR PREVIOUS LIMITED EDITIONS, GODS OF DARKNESS SOLD OUT QUICKLY. 

Limited copies remain of At the Door of Darkness, a forgotten episode from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, deleted from the published version, and now reconstructed from the original manuscript. Details here.

In the mid-1930s F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, wrote a short story set in medieval France, with a lead character, 'The Count of Darkness', based on the young Ernest Hemingway. It also featured a witch cult, drawn from a research source which greatly inspired the work of H.P. Lovecraft. Fitzgerald's agent, perhaps unsurprisingly, was somewhat nonplussed, but the story was sold for (belated) publication in a magazine. Since then, 'Gods of Darkness' has been forgotten by the reading public, and quietly ignored by Fitzgerald's estate: it has never been included in any collected edition of the author's work. Indeed to my knowledge it has never been reprinted anywhere... until now.

GODS OF DARKNESS

By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald's forgotten story of a medieval witch cult, drawn from a source that also inspired H.P. Lovecraft.

The story has never been collected in any edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald's works, and is reprinted here for the first time.

With an extended afterword by Adam Newell, detailing the background to the story, and its fascinating links to the work of H.P. Lovecraft, with relevant excerpts from Lovecraft's writings.

A strictly limited, never-to-be-reprinted edition of 250 hand-numbered copies for sale.

Each copy features a tipped-in frontispiece illustration, based on an original linocut by Sharon Newell.

A5 format, 40pp (over 10,000 words in total), printed on uncoated stock, including a cover printed on heavy Tinteretto Gesso paper. With a frontispiece printed on 300gsm silk stock, tipped in by hand.

Our previous limited editions have tended to sell out, so don't miss out on this one...

The Slave Race, featuring Philip K. Dick's first SF tale (not in his Collected Stories), sold out in a matter of days (details here).

Our two Lawrence of Arabia titles (see details here and here), were described by the T. E. Lawrence Society as "a very beautiful publication" and "a valuable piece of ephemera for your collection". 

The Ghost of the Private Theatricals, a newly discovered tale of terror by Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein (details here), was featured in the Times Literary Supplement, and also sold out quickly, with copies going to every continent except Antarctica!

Limited copies remain of At the Door of Darkness, a forgotten episode from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, deleted from the published version, and now reconstructed from the original manuscript. Details here.

TO ORDER GODS OF DARKNESS

There are 250 hand-numbered copies, first come, first-served. There will be no reprint.

NOW SOLD OUT (in less than a fortnight...).

More photos:

The frontispiece is taken from an original linocut by Sharon Newell.
Here it is being carved.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Many thanks as always to Sharon Newell for her superbly atmospheric linocut, which became the basis for the frontispiece, and to Martin Stiff for his mastery of design and layout. Special thanks are also due to Jeff Sypeck, without whom...
I'd also like to make it clear that this edition, published in the UK, was not licenced, prepared or approved by the Estate of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Photograph of Fitzgerald by Carl Van Vechten. Photograph of Lovecraft by Lucius B. Truesdell.