Fire Down Below

Uncorrected Advance Proof. 8vo. Pp. [iv], 313. Printed blue wraps. The third volume in Golding's 'To the End of the Earth' trilogy comprising the Booker Prize-winning Rites of Passage (1980) and followed by Close Quarters (1987). Published on 20th March 1989 in a trade edition of 19,299 copies. A signed limited edition of the series, numbering 400 copies, was published by Faber in 1991.

A Napoleonic era year-long crossing from England to the Antipodes of a motley band of passengers and crew aboard a decrepit former man-o'-war. Adapted as a BBC miniseries in 2005, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Jared Harris and Sam Neill. Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983. "The best novel I've read this year. The language fizzes and spits." –The Daily Telegraph

[Gekoski and Grogan A19a]