Finding a Graham Greene manuscript at a car boot sale ….

A couple of weeks ago I saw some papers flapping in the wind at the car boot sale in Arundel. They weren’t held together by anything. I could see it was a manuscript and so I had a quick glance. The header said The Tenth Man by Graham Green. The publisher mark at the bottom of the page was The Bodley Head. I nearly fainted. I gathered up the pages and bought them for £5. After some literary detective work, I believe it’s the final pass proofs of the manuscript from 1984. The editorial changes are mostly on the introduction, not the main text. Not in GGs hand (sadly!). Either his sister, a secretary or someone at the publishers. It’s a wonderful document, worth a few hundred but not life-changing. I’m going to keep it for inspiration and wonder. How did it get to be randomly in a box on a car boot sale, though? No other literary documents anywhere close …