First published in 1945, In Youth Is Pleasure recounts a summer in the life of 15-year-old Orvil Pym, who is holidaying with his father and brothers in a Kentish hotel, with little to do but explore the countryside and surrounding area. 'I don't understand what to do, how to live': so says the 15-year-old Orvil - who, as a boy who glories and suffers in the agonies of adolescence, dissecting the teenage years with an acuity, stands as a clear (marvelously British) ancestor of The Catcher In The Rye's Holden Caulfield. A delicate coming-of-age novel, shot through with humour, In Youth Is Pleasure, has long achieved cult status, and earned admirers ranging from Alan Bennett to William Burroughs, Edith Sitwell to John Waters. 'Maybe there is no better novel in the world that is Denton Welch's In Youth Is Pleasure,' wrote Waters. 'Just holding it my hands... is enough to make illiteracy a worse crime than hunger.'

The record of a thrilling and tormenting gay love affair in World War II England, these letters also reveal a devastating experience of disability and, above all, the awakening of a remarkable and unforgettable literary voice.

Leven en werk van de Engelse schrijver Denton Welch (1915-1948).

Third book by English author and painter Denton Welch. A collection of short stories, it was the last publication he worked on. Issued by Hamish Hamilton with a publication date of 1948, but was released in January 1949, a few days after Welch's death.

A beautiful and unassuming coming-of-age novel. Painfully sensitive and sad Orville Pym is fifteen, and the novel recounts the summer holiday after his first miserable year at public school. As in all of Welch's work, what is most important are the details of Orville's surroundings, as reflected through his remarkable perception. Includes a foreword by William Burroughs, who said of Welch's work 'It is time Denton received the attention he deserves.'

Alan Bennett contributes a perceptive and very personal Foreword to this new biography of the cult 1930s-40s writer and artist, Denton Welch. Welch's writing is like a glass of fine white wine, apparently innocuous and clear but very powerful. This most amazing writer, who died tragically at the age of thirty-three in 1948, is at once artless and incredibly precious. James Methuen-Campbell has researched his subject thoroughly, conducting countless interviews with those who knew Welch. For the first time Welch's work as an artist is also properly considered. The appendices include the first ever publication of the short pieces The Packing-case House and the Thief, The Big Field and Reading My First Review - In Spring. The biography includes a full bibliography of his writings and a catalogue of all known pictures and illustrations. The book also contains 61 plates, many in full colour, and a colour dustjacket. It will be limited to 500 copies.