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82.
The Abdication of Queen Elizabeth the Second.
No place (Notting Hill): no publisher stated (Open Head Press), no date (1975). First edition. 8vo. Pale blue boards, upper board decorated with the royal coat of arms in red and title lettering in black. 8pp., with stitched binding.
Presentation copy from Heathcote Williams, inscribed on the preliminary page: “for Bill [Levy] with much love from the anonymous author printer, & publisher, & binder. 1/150 printed in Caslon, Bembo & Erhardt (one letter) specially for Windsor Free Festival, 1975-1392 after Muhammed + 3 after Hendrix.”
One of Heathcote Williams’s best anti-monarchist satires, and the first publication from the Open Head Press, the partnership he founded with Richard Adams in 1974. The 4th Windsor Free Festival, for which the booklet was created, was planned for August 1975 but did not take place (Ubi Dwyer and Sid Rawle were famously imprisoned for promoting it). An alternative site was found in Watchfield (then in Berkshire, now in Oxfordshire), and Williams, one of the so-called ‘Watchfield Ten’ who helped organise the week-long festival, read from his pamphlet and was seen carrying a sign that read: “Hello Bill [meaning the Old Bill], wish you were here. Love from the Windsor Picnickers”.
Boards faded and lightly stained, o/w Very Good; internally Near Fine.
