GHOSTS OF MANILA

London, England: Jonathan Cape, 1994. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. London, England: Jonathan Cape, 1994. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 279 pages. The author's fourth novel. One of James Hamilton-Paterson's finest achievements. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, particularly the American Edition. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The DJ is beautifully conceived and realized, utilizing a distorted photograph of the former First Lady, Imelda Marcos. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents James Hamilton-Paterson's "Ghosts of Manila". Set in the Philippines, where he has lived part-time for much of his adult life, and written in his characteristically rich yet pristine style. James Hamilton-Paterson was a foreign correspondent before he turned to writing full-time. As such, he has lived abroad for much of his writing life, mainly in the Philippines and Tuscany (recently, in Austria) , which has made him, like his predecessors, Christopher Isherwood and W. H. Auden, the prototypical alienated Englishman, underrated if not downright resented in his homeland. To him, the world we live in today has been irreparably corrupted and perhaps destroyed by colonialism, specifically the British and American kinds, and his moral obligation as a writer is to record our personal lives as they are affected by the fact of the world's colonial past and its enduring, pernicious reach. ForHamilton-Paterson, there is no such thing as "post-colonialism": Whether one is British, American, Jew, Palestinian, Thai, or Filipino, one is a victim of colonialism. Colonialism victimizes both the colonizer and the colonized. An absolute "must-have" title for James Hamilton-Paterson collectors. This title is a late-modern classic. This is one of few copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing (British) still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A scarce copy thus. One of the most brilliant writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER JAMES HAMILTON-PATERSON TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0224037609.