1st Edition, 1st Printing 12.7 x 19.7 cm green cloth with gilt stamped titles to the spine and publisher’s bland stamped device to the rear, 319[1]pp with original dust jacket priced at 7s. 6d. net. Signed and inscribed to Margaret Craig Thomas, Lady Rhondda who had employed Holtby to work on her magazine Time and Tide and with whom she had a very close relationship. The boards are clean and bright with just a touch of shelf wear. Internally clean with just a little toning to the free endpapers where the dust jacket does not reach. Holt’s inscription dated September 1927 reads; “To Lady Rhondda,/ with gratitude & affection -/ from Winifred Holtby.” The dust jacket is toned, more so on the spine and there is rubbing to the spine tips, corners and edges with a little loss to the spine tips and corners and short tears extending from the chips on the joint tips. These tears have small pieces of tape on the verso of the jacket to prevent further damage. There are also a few small edge tears along the upper and lower edges. Margaret Haig Thomas, 2nd Viscountess Rhondda was a significant figure in the fight for women’s suffrage in Great Britain. After joining The Women’s Social and Political Union she became secretary of its Newport branch and was imprisoned after trying to bomb a Royal Mail letter box. She was only released after going on hunger strike. During World War I she was on the RMS Lusitania when it was torpedoed by a German submarine and only just survived after clinging to a piece of board for many hours. After the war she continued to fight for women’s rights as well as becoming one of the first female Justices of the Peace in the County of Monmouth and the first female elected as President of the Institute of Directors in 1926. It has been suggested that Lady Rhondda’s relationship with Holtby was “probably the deepest and most caring she was ever involved in” [Eoff] and their relationship certainly annoyed Vera Brittain with whom Holtby was living and in 1931 criticised Rhondda for asking to much, professionally of the ailing Holtby, who was still working for Time and Tide. All in all a really excellent association 1st Edition copy of Holtby’s third novel.