I think the book will be widely available next week, so if anyone is thinking of cancelling orders and trying a different company who may state that it is available now, been there and done that in the past but did not get the book any quicker, then good-luck.

I am sticking with my Amazon order.

And after almost what, 6 years, why wouldn't you stick with that Amazon order at this point? :D

Once I get it I will go straight to read "Riddles in the Dark". Are there any other major textual differences between this one and the current version?

nothing major, apart from ch.5.

I was just having a chat with Charles Noad. (he says it's okay to write about this here). I'd rung him a couple of days ago to ask whether he'd heard anything about this edition, and he said he'd already got his from HC.

He rang me this evening to say he's gone through his copy of the book, checking it against Hammond and found only the one anomaly - there is no blank page between the map and the half-title. Otherwise, it seems pretty good.

David Brawn told me that the omission of the two blank pages at the front was down to getting the plate to appear in the right place (and he is happy for the book to be discussed and information shared -- I was worried I had jumped the gun).

garm, you should ask Charles to look in here some time. I'm sure he'd appreciate the leisurely pace of posting & book pedantry...

BH

ha - well, you never know -

Stu wrote:
David Brawn told me that the omission of the two blank pages at the front was down to getting the plate to appear in the right place (and he is happy for the book to be discussed and information shared -- I was worried I had jumped the gun).

When you do a good job there is nothing to hide If anything this is very reassuring. I hope Amazon ships my copy soon.

Stu wrote:
David Brawn told me that the omission of the two blank pages at the front was down to getting the plate to appear in the right place (and he is happy for the book to be discussed and information shared -- I was worried I had jumped the gun).

It does mean that all the page numbers are wrong in the facsimile, it looks like the first page is actually page 9 and not page 11 as in the original.

I assume the plate is Mirkwood