Patriciaphernalia: A Signed Patricia Highsmith Letter Regarding Ripley's Game

I've a number of Patricia Highsmith signed books I've been meaning to blog about for bloody ages – years in fact – but the demands of work and life have meant that my blogging activity has largely been restricted to whichever books I've written or edited myself. However, I'm hoping to make more time for Existential Ennui besides simply blogging about whichever project I'm working on – case in point being my post the other day on Patrick Gierth – and have every intention of getting to those signed Highsmiths soon (and adding them to my dedicated Patricia Highsmith page). First, though, I want to showcase something even more remarkable:

A note Highsmith wrote on 9 February, 1975, regarding her "third Tom Ripley" as she puts it – in other words, 1974's Ripley's Game. The third in Highsmith's five-book Ripliad, Ripley's Game is, as I've noted many, many times, my favourite novel, not just of hers but full stop. I've never managed to secure a signed edition – though I do own a 1974 US Knopf first with an owner inscription by James Bond/Ian Fleming biographer John Pearson – so when I saw this note offered for sale I knew I had to have it so I could pair it with my 1974 Heinemann first edition of Ripley's Game (the book which began my book-collecting odyssey).

Addressed from Highsmith's then-residence in the village of Moncourt, France, where she wrote both Ripley's Game and the next book in the Ripliad, 1980's The Boy Who Followed Ripley (a signed US edition of which is one of those signed books I mentioned up top), the note is penned in response to a missive from one Peter Ladkin. An inveterate letter writer judging by the number of other examples of his author letters offered for sale at the same time (he also corresponded with the philosopher and LSE Professor John Watkins), Mr. Ladkin had evidently written approvingly of Ripley's Game, eliciting the following response from Highsmith:

Dear Mr Ladkin,

Don't worry about sending me the cost of return postage. I thank you very much for your remarks about my work and am glad you enjoyed my third Tom Ripley.

Yours sincerely

Patricia Highsmith

As the mention of "return postage" suggests, Mr. Ladkin had also seemingly requested Highsmith's signature and an accompanying inscription, which she duly supplied on a separate piece of paper, presumably so it could be used as a bookplate:

So there we have it: two notes regarding Ripley's Game, written from the house where Patricia Highsmith wrote that novel. Quite the pair of pieces of Patriciaphernalia for a Highsmith/Ripley's Game obsessive like myself.

Painter, Illustrator and Book Jacket Designer Patrick Gierth and the West Sussex Village of Wisborough Green

Among the dust jackets collated in my Beautiful British Book Jacket Design of the 1950s and 1960s gallery is an evocative one belonging to a 1951 Michael Joseph first edition of Rogue Male author Geoffrey Household's terrific rural thriller A Rough Shoot (a novel wherein, as I noted in my review back in 2012, the unsuspecting reader will find such bucolic details as badger ham). The dust jacket's designer, Patrick Gierth, also designed the wrapper for the 1951 Joseph first edition of John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids (among other jackets), but he had a broader artistic life stretching far beyond the bounds of book cover art. His 1943 painting Guard Relaxing, the Stables, Wynnstay is held in the Government Art Collection, while his poster for Shell/BP is held by the British Council, and his name pops up in the Imperial War Museum collection. Yet he found artistic expression in the parochial as well as the national, as I learned after I bought this:

This is a 9.7 by 14.6-inch watercolour painting I came across whilst googling Patrick Gierth. It was listed by the seller under the surname Gierth – it's signed, but only with a surname – dated 1986 and described as "A charming watercolour with gouache highlights." I had no idea whether it was actually by Patrick Gierth, but his was an unusual surname, and stylistically it looked like it could be, plus it was only thirty quid, so after some deliberation I decided to go for it. 

With the painting in hand I did some further digging and determined that until his death in November 1994 Gierth lived in the West Sussex village of Wisborough Green, about an hour's drive from where I live in Lewes. While I was pretty sure I'd driven through the place, I'd never visited it, so although I suspected the scene depicted in the painting might be somewhere in the village, it wasn't anywhere I recognised. Gierth's given address upon his death was School Lane; could the painting depict the road where he lived, I wondered? 

Google Street View gave me a sense that I might be on the right track, but while I thought the church glimpsed in the picture could well be the Wisborough Green parish church (alias St Peter Ad Vincula), I wasn't able to pinpoint precisely the vantage point. I did, however, discover that Gierth was instrumental in the creation of the Wisborough Tapestry which hangs in the church, and that he designed the village green sign.

There was only one thing for it: I was going to have to go to Wisborough Green. And so earlier this year, on my birthday, that's precisely what Rachel and I did, painting in hand(s). It didn't take long to find the place where the picture was painted, round the corner from the village hall and pond, just down from where Gierth lived in High Barn. You can see the view in the photos in this post, along with other photos I took of the village sign, the tapestry, and as it turns out several other pieces Gierth produced for the church.

Confirmation, then, that this rather lovely painting is indeed by the designer of the dust jacket of one of my favourite thrillers, and moreover depicts the road in Wisborough Green where he lived.

Testing, Testing: Build the Guardians of the Galaxy Ship!

Currently swooping into view in newsagents and supermarkets... somewhere in the country (I have no idea where – if you've seen it out in the wild, please do leave a comment!) is this:

Hachette Partworks' Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy Ship! It's something I've been working on for the past couple of years: a step-by-step build of the Guardians' – and Avengers' – ship from Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, Thor: Love and Thunder and indeed I Am Groot, accompanied by a magazine delving into all aspects of the Guardians and cosmic Marvel both on screen and in comics. I wrote and edited the magazine – which was designed by the amazing Amazing15 – and in my capacity as author of Guardians of the Galaxy Ultimate Guide, Marvel Arms and Armour and other Guardians and Marvel books have been advising on the ship, the build, the Guardians, Marvel and multifarious other aspects of the project.

What's appearing in shops right now... somewhere in the UK (again, I really don't know where – I wish I did) is a four-issue test comprising the first four magazines and sets of parts. If the test goes well, then the partwork will launch nationally. So if you want the chance of building a huge model of the Guardians' ship (or the Infinity Saga ship as I like to call it) with working lights and engines, movable wings and tail, and even the auxiliary pod that Thor, Rocket and Groot use in Infinity War and War Machine and Nebula use in Endgame, and you want to know what else I have planned for the magazine, grab yourself an issue or three if it appears in shops near you, or head to the website and subscribe. Believe me, the ship truly is a thing of beauty – and the magazine's a damn good read too!