Talk about two birds with one stone, collector-wise that is! The writing of Hector H Munro, or 'Saki' is still much read and admired by a discerning bunch of readers and Alice, well Alice and her creator Lewis Carroll are probably still one of the busiest fields in book collecting. So this new publication from Withnail Books clearly ticks the boxes.
One of the very first pieces of published writing by Saki was a series in The Westminster Gazette called, "The Westminster Alice", inspired by Wonderland they were satires on the contemporary political scene. Illustrations were provided 'after' Tenniel with F. Carruthers Gould and they proved very popular, so much so that the Gazette collected the vignettes into a pamphlet. There was one stray, however, published after the main series had finished and it wasn't in the Gazette but in a sister publication Picture Politics. As a result this 'stray' vignette has not been included in any of the subsequent 'collected' editions of Saki's work and has been unpublished between its original 1902 appearance and today.
November 14th will be the centenary of Munro's death on the Battlefield at the Somme, he was 45 years old. Withnail books have put out this 'lost' vignette "Alice Wants to Know" in an 8pp booklet, limited to 45 numbered copies to mark this sad anniversary.
Copies are available only from them directly and the details of how to order are on their blog.