Ray’s a laugh (Ray is’n Witz) (signed)

Edition : First / Zurich / Scalo / 1996 / Hardcover. / Near Fine / VG+
4to, 128pp. Boards in dustwrapper. Full bleed Colour plates. Text in English and German. A bit bumped. Flatsigned and dated 1996 by Billingham to front endpaper. Also – interesting to note – the colophon and blurb are printed on the boards in English as there is no text or titlepage inside the book itself, so the book was printed once and in English and then an alternate Dustwrapper was printed with German language title and blurb. Nice. Billingham’s masterpiece. “This book is about my close family. My father Raymond is a chronic alcoholic. He doesn’t like going outside and mostly drinks homebrew. My mother Elizabeth hardly drinks but she does smoke a lot. She likes pets and things that are decorative. They married in 1970 and I was born soon after. My younger brother Jason was taken into care when he was 11 but is now back with Ray and Liz again. Recently he became a father. Ray says Jason is unruly. Jason says Ray’s a laugh but doesn’t want to be like him.” Needs no introduction!

See inside