First edition copy of Brighton Rock up for sale for £65,000

Rare books seller Peter Harrington, which lists the treasure on its website, said: “Copies in the dust jacket of the first UK edition of Brighton Rock are among the most notorious rarities of 20th century literature and are considered by many to be the black tulip of Graham Greene collecting.”

The murder thriller set in 1930s Brighton is one of Greene’s most famous novels and was adapted into two films.

One of Peter Harrington’s specialist sellers told The Argus: “Really, with this book it’s all about the dust jacket. We’ve handled only a few examples over the years (seven at the last count). The pink dust jacket, which is intended to replicate the lurid pink of the titular confectionery, is susceptible to fading and chipping. Having a first edition with its dust jacket is a noted rarity as it only survives in tiny numbers.

“The book was privately purchased and we hope it will excite the attention of a Graham Greene completist or someone looking to upgrade their copy from a first edition of Brighton Rock to a first edition with dust jacket.”

Greene said no city had a hold on his affections like Brighton (Image: FORTEPAN / Magyar Hírek folyóirat) The novel takes its name from the seaside confectionery, rock, which is used as a murder weapon in the plot and is famously the subject of a quote from the novel’s amateur sleuth Ida: “I’ve never changed. It’s like those sticks of rock: bite it all the way down, you’ll still read Brighton.”

Professor Richard Greene (no relation) who is a leading expert on Greene said: “According to his bibliographers, this book earned just £256 for its British publisher Heinemann in the first year after publication. As an old man, Greene was interested in how collectors valued his early works, but would have been shocked by this. He might have suggested that a would-be purchaser ought to give the £65,000 to a charity and buy a paperback instead.”

Greene’s parents lived in nearby Crowborough and the writer enjoyed taking hotel rooms in Brighton to write. 

Some locals didn't welcome the novel, something which Greene regretted. He said: “Would they have resented the novel even more deeply if they had known that for me to describe Brighton was really a labour of love, not hate? No city before the war, not London, Paris or Oxford, had such a hold on my affections.”