The Marchman [author's typescript, proofreader's marked set and dust jacket]

[ff] 3 ff 370. Full length authorial typescript of Tranter's novel 'The Marchman', the 16th century story of John Maxwell, Warden of the West March of the Borderland between Scotland and England. Typed by the author who entitles his book "-Marchman- A Novel by Nigel Tranter'. Minor authorial corrections throughout. The typescript is bound in a homemade cardboard cover sheet, hole punched and tied with a shoelace. The main text is preceded by what the author calls: 'Proposed Cover-blurb for Marchman'. Accompanied by [ff374] the proofreader's marked set, and a fine, illustrated dust jacket of 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.'