First UK edition, first impression, signed by the author on the title page. Fire and Hemlock was published in the US in the preceding year; both editions are rare signed. Structurally based on T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets, Fire and Hemlock intertwines retellings of the Anglo-Scottish ballads "Tam Lin" and "Thomas the Rhymer". Jones aimed to write a book "in which modern life and heroic mythical events approached one another so closely that they were nearly impossible to separate" (quoted by McCallum & Stephens). It is "an early example of how Jones uses multiple character identities to create truly heroic female characters" (Campbell, p. 176). Lori M. Campbell, A Quest of Her Own: Essays on the Female Hero in Modern Fantasy, 2014; Robyn McCallum & John Stephens, Retelling Stories, Framing Culture, 1998. Octavo. Original blue boards, spine lettered in gilt, white endpapers. With illustrated dust jacket by Dave Eastbury. Hint of creasing to spine ends; spot to rear panel of unclipped jack