Alfie

First edition. 8vo. 208pp. Brown cloth, lettered in gilt to spine. Jacket photographs by Colin O'Brien (priced 25s net to front flap).

Text block sporadically foxed and soiled, creased to corners, its edges a little tanned. Dustwrapper rubbed and creased to extremities with a small loss at tail of spine. A well-thumbed, serviceable copy of an elusive title.

Set in 1960s swinging London, Naughton adapted Alfie from his 1963 play about a young Cockney ladies' man. Basis for the 1966 taboo-breaking landmark film, directed by Lewis Gilbert and featuring Michael Caine as the eponymous anti-hero. Gilbert breached the "fourth wall" here, having a swaggering Caine cast philosophical asides to the audience, reinforcing his cad status in the process. Ranked 33rd on the BFI's list of the 100 greatest British Films ever made.

The 2004 remake by Charles Shyer, starring Jude Law, switched the script's action to New York City, with Northern England locations doubling up for Manhattan. "[O]ne of the great "man's novels" of all time, if not the best, right up there with The Memoirs of Casanova and My Secret Life." –Mark SaFranko, The Guardian