A Good Man in Africa.

BOYD, William.

$1,200.00

Item Number: 124801

London : Hamish Hamilton, 1981.

First edition of the author’s classic first book. Octavo, original cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “For Annette, with all good wishes from the author.” Additionally signed in full by the author on the title page. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Jacket illustration by Michael MacManus.

In the small African republic of Kinjanja, British diplomat Morgan Leafy bumbles heavily through his job. His love of women, his fondness for drink, and his loathing for the country prove formidable obstacles on his road to any kind of success. But when he becomes an operative in Operation Kingpin and is charged with monitoring the front runner in Kinjanja’s national elections, Morgan senses an opportunity to achieve real professional recognition and, more importantly, reassignment. After he finds himself being blackmailed, diagnosed with a venereal disease, attempting bribery, and confounded with a dead body, Morgan realizes that very little is going according to plan. It went on to win both the Whitbread Book Award for a first novel and the Somerset Maugham Award. It is the basis for the 1994 film directed by Bruce Beresford starring Colin Friels, Sean Connery, John Lithgow, Joanne Whalley, Diana Rigg and Louis Gossett, Jr.