The Boy Down Kitchener Street First edition. by Paul, Leslie - 1957

London: Faber & Faber, 1957. The book has the supposed signature of Edward Ardizzone to the front free endpaper but we are doubtful that this is genuine. Although it bears many characteristics of Ardizzone's hand, the initial 'E' is normally more angular, the tails of the 'z's are normally straight rather than curled and the terminal 'e' most often ends in a straight line rather than a curl. There is no provenance or other evidence to support the genuineness of the signature. That being said, the book is undoubtedly a first edition with its original dust jacket. Hardback. 191pp. Dust jacket in a protective sleeve. This is a delightful book. It begins with a bus ride through the streets of his boyhood which shocked Leslie Paul into the realization that the world of his suburban childhood had disappeared. When he paced the streets again he saw that the whole pattern of life had changed. In this book he looks back on Kitchener Street, and recreates his childhood around the boy Tommy Barnabas. The flavour of street life; the careless boyhood, indifferent to time but wrapt in its own seasons of games; the rich pattern of daily life in a large high-spirited family in small house called Omdurman; the behaviour of aunts and uncles grown fabulous through the passing years - all these are recaptured. The intention of the book is not autobiographical. Memory imagination and good writing evoke the whole flavour and texture of family life in a vanished epoch. The result is a tender and moving picture of childhood by a writer whose work is full of thought and beauty. Jacket design by Edward Ardizzone. Book in very good condition. Very slight lean to the spine. Corners a little rubbed. Dust jacket very good. Price clipped (front flap clipped top and bottom). Chips and very slight loss to extremities of spine. Slightly discoloured.