Presentation Copy of a Banned Book
Lord Horror.
[Manchester]: Savoy, 1990 [i.e., 1989].
Price: $950.00
About the item
First edition. 192 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. Presentation Copy of a Banned Book. Black cloth gilt. Fine in fine dust jacket. Inscribed 12 January 1990 on a printed leaf, “Editor & Contributor Michael Butterworth”, preceding the title page, “For Val, With Love, Mike”.
Item #315469
Britton’s satirical account of the life of the British traitor Lord Haw-haw, in three parts: On the Isle of Lord Horror; Lord Horror, Jewkiller; and (Lord) Horror on the Moon.
“Copies of Britton's first novel, Lord Horror … a scatological examination of Nazism and the UK traitor Lord Haw-Haw which made use of pornographic imagery upsetting to the Manchester police, were seized” (SFE).
This copy in presentation from the editor (and uncredited co-author) Michael Butterworth, who founded Savoy Books with David Britton in 1976, and who edited many of the controversial books issued by the press. The Manchester police had it in for Savoy Books.
The book was prosecuted for obscenity by a Manchester magistrate, Derick Fairclough, who ordered copies of the book to be destroyed. With two loosely inserted letters (one duplicated, one autograph) from editor Mike Butterworth, July 1992, recounting stages of the appeal against the decision, which was ultimately successful. The book is uncommon as many copies were in fact destroyed.
