Highness in Hiding [author's typescript, and dust jacket proof]

London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1995. No Binding. Very Good. [ff] 1 ff 310. Full length authorial typescript of Tranter's novel 'Highness in Hiding', the story of Bonnie Prince Charlie's extraordinary six months as a fugitive in the Highlands of Scotland after his disastrous battle at Culloden. Typed by the author who entitles his book "-Highness in Hiding- A Novel by Nigel Tranter'. Minor authorial corrections throughout. The typescript is bound in a homemade cardboard cover sheet, hole punched and but lacking its shoelace tie. The two final leaves are creased and chipped to the edges but with no loss of type. The main text is preceded by 'List of Characters (cont)' suggesting a page missing. Accompanied by a printed proof of the dust jacket for the first edition. Nigel Tranter's normal method of composition was described in his Guardian obituary thus: 'Each morning he would leave his house in East Lothian and begin a long walk... In stout boots, flat cap and sensible tweeds, he looked just like any other bird-watcher but for one oddity: in his hands he carried small sheets of paper, protected by a polythene bag in inclement weather. By the time he returned home some 12 miles later, he would have completed another 1,000 words of his next book. Then, with few corrections, the work would be typed up on a venerable Imperial typewriter.' Very Good 1995