NATURE NOTES.** [Author SIGNED** Bookplated copy.]

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,author SIGNED,1st edn. FINE/FINE.No owner inscrptn but author's handwritten,blue ink SIGNED - without a dedication - and black inked month/year date: November 1997 to a 'THE TIMES' printed,adhesive bookplate pasted to plain dark green front free endpaper, and no price-clip to the dw/dj.Exceptionally bright,crisp, and immaculately clean wrap-around,matt white background with colour pictorial caricature artwork by Peter Brookes,illustrated dw/dj covers with black-lettered calligraphic facsimile signature and capitalised black-outlined white-lettered title in a pale green panel; spine/ backstrip with repeated similarly coloure+lettered title+ author signature,and publisher's capitalised,black-lettered +illustrated colophon to foot of same,rear panel also with a colour illustrated cartoon+black-lettered caption. Negligible shelf-wear,bumping,creasing to edges and corners – no nicks,tears or splits present. Top+fore-edges bright and clean without any blemish; contents bright, tight,clean,solid and sound – no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners – virtually pristine,unread,appears apart from my own collation.Publisher's bright,crisp,clean, sharp-cornered,colour pictorial caricature artwork repeated from dw/dj,to illustrated paper-covered boards with repeated coloured lettering from dw/dj,and immaculate plain dark green sets of endpapers - bookplate excepted.UK,landscape 8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,6 -111pp [paginated] includes 53 full-page,full-colour cartoons each with an accompanying,facing short history/ news story context; plus [unpaginated] half-title+title pages and a dedication. Visually the exterior appearance is exceptional for a book of it's age,and particularly internally, he book is also in an exceptional condition/state of preservation and presentation.It really is an exceptional, exemplary example for its cleanliness and brightness.See als my book ID rja31208 'Nature Notes III',a UK,HB+dw/dj, author SIGNED, 1st edn. Peter Brookes is an English political cartoonist who produced work for many publications,most notably The Times (UK newspaper),for which he is the leader-page cartoonist. In 1996,Political Cartoonist of the Year Peter Brookes launched a new series of cartoons in the The Times newspaper on Saturdays called 'Nature Notes' - brilliantly executed drawings of both domestic MPs and international leaders as members of a weird and wonderful world.A menagerie with a vegetable patch,the world of 'Nature Notes' is a place where the great and the good can and do become the small and the furry: Boris Yeltsin as a Muscovy (lame) duck; Ian Paisley as an Orange-Utan ('Devours all greenery'); and Baroness Thatcher as a rabid old bat ('Its venom is of European origin,and any bite can prove gravely injurious to grey-haired, bespectacled gentlemen'). Anything is possible - John Prescott can even become a Great Tit. 'Nature Notes' brings together over fifty of the first 'Nature Notes' cartoons to appear in The Times.Covering the period from February,1996 to June, 1997,just after Labour's landslide victory in the General Election,each cartoon takes as its theme a news story of the time - among them Tory splits,sleaze and Euro-bickering; Labour's ruthlessly inexorable path to power; BSE,Budgets and Britannia; crime and royalty and Northern Ireland. Both a revealing commentary on the dog-days of Tory Britain and a hilarious succession of merciless character studies,'Nature Notes' is essential reading for the politically informed. Brookes is particularly noted for his "Nature Notes" series of cartoons, begun in February 1996,which portrays various fictitious beasts,based on the appearance (and supposed habits) of well-known politicians. He has noted that a benefit of using animal images is that he can show his subjects doing things that,for reasons of decency,could not be published if they were portrayed as human - Brookes has said: "that you are able to depict crap and fornication and that sort of thing". During coalition government in 2010, he began a notable series of cartoons known as the "Westminster Academy", which depicted Nick Clegg as a public school fag to a red cheeked David Cameron, who was portrayed as a prefect dressed in an Eton suit and Union Jack waistcoat, with Boris Johnson and george Osborne also appearing in some cartoons as his cronies.During the same period,he also depicted leader of the then Opposition Ed Milliband and the shadow Chancellor Ed Balls as Wallace & Gromit. [Wiki.] Please contact seller,for correct shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas customers - BEFORE ordering through the order page! N.B. ALL buyers please note, stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch,especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE. ** N.B. US/Canada customers please be aware: Standard AIRMAIL postage from UK to these destinations can now cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence,then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard US AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always. **