In the original dustsheet. Red cloth binding with black title on the spine.

F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feel and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available.

Very rare

Cronin’s first novel, the story of an arrogant and cruel hat-maker who struggles for social acceptance. It was made into a motion picture in 1942, starring Robert Newton, Deborah Kerr and James Mason. The Scottish born Cronin (1896-1981) earned his M.D. from the University of Glasgow. After a few years, he gave up practice due to the unexpected success of this, his first book Hatter’s castle, which enabled him to write full time.

Hatter’s Castle (1931) is the first novel of author A. J. Cronin. The story is set in 1879, in the fictional town of Levenford, on the Firth of Clyde. The plot revolves around many characters and has many subplots, all of which relate to the life of the hatter, James Brodie, whose narcissism and cruelty gradually destroy his family and life. The book was made into a successful film in 1942 starring Robert Newton, Deborah Kerr, and James Mason.

Archibald Joseph Cronin (19 July 1896 – 6 January 1981), known as A. J. Cronin, was a Scottish physician and novelist. His best-known novel is The Citadel (1937), about a Scottish doctor who serves in a Welsh mining village before achieving success in London, where he becomes disillusioned about the venality and incompetence of some doctors. Cronin knew both areas, as a medical inspector of mines and as a doctor in Harley Street. The book exposed unfairness and malpractice in British medicine and helped to inspire the National Health Service. The Stars Look Down, set in the Northeast of England, is another of his best-selling novels inspired by his work among miners. Both novels have been filmed, as have Hatter’s Castle, The Keys of the Kingdom and The Green Years. His 1935 novella Country Doctor inspired a long-running BBC radio and TV series, Dr. Finlay’s Casebook (1962–1971), set in the 1920s. There was a follow-up series in 1993–1996.