The English Leopard

Some eighteen years ago, in 2005, I published a booklet in an edition of 100 called The English Leopard. This was in the form of a dialogue between two antiquarians concerning the secret history of the English emblem known as the Three Lions.

The leonine beasts are not in fact what they seem, and the amateur heralds discourse upon the symbolic significance of this.

The piece was reprinted in the original edition of The Nightfarers (2009), but omitted in the revised, Tartarus Press, edition of 2020, as I didn’t think it fitted in. For, I must admit that both the theme and the form might seem somewhat recondite.

I have now issued a new edition in similar booklet form to the first publication. The English Leopard: A Heraldic Dialogue has been slightly revised, and now includes re-edited Notes and a new Afterword.

It is A5, 8pp (+prelims), centre-stapled, with yellow card covers, riso printed at Footprint Workers Co-op, Leeds. Signed, numbered edition of 100 copies.

Update: out of print.

(Mark Valentine)

Image: The English Leopard booklet. Serving suggestion only.