SLANG

Norman is puzzlingly absent from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. The recipient Philip Dosse was proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of a stable of seven arts magazines including Books and Bookmen and Plays and Players. See ‘Death of a Bookman’ by the novelist Sally Emerson (editor of ‘Books and Bookmen’ at the time of Dosse’s suicide), in Standpoint magazine, October 2018. The four items are in fair condition, lightly aged and worn. They are all signed ‘Frank Norman’, and the letters are each 1p, 4to. ONE: TLS, 17 February 1975.

7pp., 8vo. A duplicated typescript on seven leaves stapled together. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. A long document, initially convincing, presenting itself as a form to be sent to the womenfolk ('Mrs/Miss') of soldiers who have suffered post traumatic stress in the Falklands conflict, but soon revealing itself to be a British Army in-joke. A revealing piece of military social history. Supposedly addressed from 'British Dept of Psychiatry | Port Stanley | BFPO 666 | Stanley Mil Ext 3002'. Ends: 'Your faithfully | [BLANK] | A. I. R.