The Tiger Who Came to Tea (First Edition)

London: Collins, 1968

4to, unaginated. Original hardcover binding, with black lettering to spine and front board, and full-colour illustrations to front and rear board. With dust jacket. Lovely full-colour illustrations throughtout.

The Tiger Who Came to Tea is a short children's story, first published by William Collins, Sons in 1968, written and illustrated by Judith Kerr. The book concerns a girl called Sophie, her mother, and an anthropomorphised tiger who invites himself to their afternoon tea and consumes all the food and drink they have. The book remains extremely popular more than 50 years after it was first published, and a theatrical adaptation of the story has been produced.

Kerr invented the story after visiting a zoo with her three-year-old daughter. She said her husband Nigel Kneale was away making a film and "it felt a bit lonely and we wished somebody would come. We'd been to the zoo so it seemed reasonable for a tiger to come. We both thought they were incredibly beautiful." She told the story many times before making it into a book. The book took a year to write and illustrate. (wikipedia.com)

Condition: Dust jacket in a fair condition, with rubbing, some creasing, edgewear and small closed and open tears. Dust jacket has been covered with protective Brodart plastic sleeve. Book: Very good. Minor bumps to the top and tail of spine. Minor bumps to bottom edges of boards, and fore edge of rear board. One minuscule indentation to rear hinge. Glue residue to front pastedown and on facing endpaper where a previous bookseller’s label was attached. Minor smudges and spots of foxing to a couple of pages. Slight smudges and a small crease to rear endpaper. Text and illustrations are overall clean. Copy is well bound. Please also see photos.