collecting

Is it worth collecting Lynda La Plante First Editions?

I would say it definitely is worth collecting Lynda La Plante first editions for the following reasons:-

Her first novel Widows published in 1983 by Severn House portrayed four women who did a daring bank heist after their bank robbing husbands who had planned to do the heist had died. It was the first time on British TV that women were seen as violent whilst carrying out the robbery. Instead of being perceived as grieving widows these women were just as cold and calculating as male bank robbers. These ordinary housewives rejected societal rules of how women are perceived on television. Crime series on British TV were usually always centred around the male dominant police officer including the no-nonsense Scottish detective in Taggart. Women in other crime dramas were often police officers following rules and regulations such as Juliet Bravo where two female police Inspector’s handle crime in a male-dominated Lancashire police station. In the series The Gentle Touch, a female police detective whose husband had died grieved for him whilst carrying out her police work helping to catch criminals. When writers do something different from others which is seen as groundbreaking their books often become highly collectable. The book Widows was published alongside the TV series and not as a standalone fiction book. The book was published in an initial small print run in hardcover mainly for libraries. To find a copy without library stamps or signed and with the original dust jacket would be quite an achievement but not impossible. As it is considered quite scarce purchasing and collecting a copy to hold onto for a number of years could be quite beneficial. Copies without the dust jacket or with library stamps can be picked up quite cheaply. If you do collect this title always purchase with the dust jacket as this is in part what makes the book more expensive even if it is a library copy providing the condition is good.