Something of a Greene curioso, albeit very much in line with the author's personal preoccupations and interests. Nino Caffè was an Italian painter who revelled, reverentially, in depicting members of the Roman Catholic clergy (referred to by Greene as 'blackbeetles') in often amusing or modestly intimate moments. The text by Greene originally appeared in December 1953 in pamphlet form, but this first edition in book form is considered one of the scarcest of Greene's works. Particularly pleasing thus inscribed by Caffè, in 1961.

First edition, signed presentation copy from the artist & subject Nino Caffè; oblong folio (220 x 290 mm.); black & white illustrations, 14 tipped-in colour plates with printed captions; publisher's watered silk cloth, gilt, slight splaying but overall very good.

cf. Wise & Hill B43; cf. Wobbe A31