First impression
1980At a glance
Points of issue
- Dust jacket, front flapPrinted price on the front flap: £3.50 net→ first issue jacket
First edition
Hardback
The Twits (1980)
Identification points are listed only where two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 20 Oct 2026.
Market value
What decides the price
- It is the first edition, which is the one collectors want.
- The first printing is told from later ones by 1 point of issue listed below.
- The original dust jacket carries much of the price for a book of this age; its condition matters as much as the book's.
- Condition is graded separately for book and jacket, from Fine down to Poor.
- Recorded sales
- 1
Price history
1 recorded sale
The full price history: every sale, the chart and values by condition.
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Quick answer
- How do I identify a The Twits first edition?
- Check these points. Dust jacket, front flap: Printed price on the front flap: £3.50 net. Each point is confirmed by at least two independent sources.
- Who published The Twits first edition?
- Jonathan Cape, London, in 1980, in hardback.
How to identify this edition
The first edition is the Jonathan Cape hardback of 1980, London, ISBN 0-224-01855-8, illustrated throughout by Quentin Blake, who also drew the jacket. It is bound in red boards with gilt lettering on the spine, in a pictorial dust jacket with the price £3.50 net on the front flap. Cape reprinted it from 1981, so a later impression in a clipped jacket is the usual trap: check both the copyright page and the flap.
How Jonathan Cape marked its first editions
- UK first editions name Jonathan Cape on the title page and carry a "First Published" statement with the year on the reverse of the title page. A first impression shows that statement with no later printings listed beneath it.
- Live and Let Die (1954) exists in three jacket states on first-impression copies, told apart by whether and where the jacket designer's credit appears on the front flap.
- Press reviews printed on the jacket flaps generally indicate a jacket from a later impression; on Casino Royale (1953) a Times review on the front flap marks a later run.
Read the full guide to Jonathan Cape 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.
Printing by printing
Printings and states
Frequently asked questions
How do I identify a The Twits first edition?
Check these points. Dust jacket, front flap: Printed price on the front flap: £3.50 net. Each point is confirmed by at least two independent sources.
Who published The Twits first edition?
Jonathan Cape, London, in 1980, in hardback.
Where these facts come from
- The Twits, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- The Twits, Roald Dahl Fans (roalddahlfans.com)
- The Twits, Jonkers Rare Books (jonkers.co.uk)
- The Twits, Jonkers Rare Books (jonkers.co.uk)
- The Twits, Lucius Books (luciusbooks.com)
Points of issue are listed only where at least two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 20 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.
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