THE WITCH'S HAND. by Utton, Peter - (1989)

New York:: Farrar, Straus & Giroux,, (1989). Hardcover first edition -. Fine in glossy illustrated boards in a fine dust jacket.. First US printing. This British author/illustrator's very imaginative and rather creepy first book. "To explain the appearance of 'a horrible, brown crinkly thing pinned to the wall' of his art studio, George's father tells his son that in the middle of the night he heard the 'slither-slither-pat-pat-cackle-cackle' of a witch coming to steal the children. Just as the witch was ready to stab George's father with a dagger of vipers, he was saved by George's mother, who cut off the witch's hand; his father has pinned it to the wall 'to remind me to lock all the doors at night.' When George's father admits that the 'hand' is just a leaf and his tale of horror 'just a story,' George laughs and says, 'Why, you rotten fibber!' " Large format, unpaginated.