First impression
1989At a glance
Points of issue
- Dust jacket, front flapPrinted price on the front flap: £12.95→ first issue jacket
Identification points are listed only where two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 21 Oct 2026.
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Doubleday's British arm issued the novel in hardback in October 1989 under ISBN 0385269072, at the same time as the American Doubleday Foundation edition (ISBN 0385247923, New York, $18.95, jacket by Don Dixon). The British issue has 364 pages, a jacket by Tony Roberts and a printed price of £12.95. The fastest check is the ISBN on the copyright page and jacket: 0385269072 is the British issue, 0385247923 the American. Doubleday also announced a signed, numbered, boxed American limited edition of 500 copies. The first British paperback followed from Bantam in 1990 (ISBN 055340069X), also with Tony Roberts art.
Doubleday's British list is an imprint of Transworld Publishers in London, and its books are identified the British way: a first impression is shown by a complete number line on the copyright page.
Read the full guide to Doubleday first editions, decade by decade, and check your copy's copyright page against it. Our number line decoder reads the printing from the row of numbers.
Check these points. Dust jacket, front flap: Printed price on the front flap: £12.95. Each point is confirmed by at least two independent sources.
Doubleday, United Kingdom, in 1989, in hardback.
Points of issue are listed only where at least two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 21 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.
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