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E. W. B. [Ernest Walter BESTON] : The Black Book. An Interesting Compilation of Facts and Fallacies Concerning My Various Friends. Introducing How the Palladium Roulette System Beat the "Bank" Consistently at Monte Carlo. LIMITED EDITION. PRESENTATION COPY FROM THE AUTHOR

The Britannic Publishing Agency. Birmingham. 1919

The Britannic Publishing Agency. 1919. First edition. Number 198 of a limited edition, run unknown. SIGNED PRESENTATION COPY, "For V. Bolliger, Esq. With every good wish from Ernest W. Beston. - 13 - 10/5/'19 Always Palladium!" No DW. Black cloth gilt. Thick 4to. Coloured roulette wheel as frontis. with each number having a corresponding head shot of Beston's friends. The key to identify them is below. Illustrations by E. C, Mountfort. See below for background to the author and artist. Thank you to Sotheran's for discovering this information! Each page bordered in green with b/w vignettes. Numerous plates and illustrations to text. 357 pages plus two pages of adverts for publications that are not real. Cloth frayed and split along joints but holding. Contents slightly shaken. An extraordinary production and very scarce. No other copies have been identified. Possibly one of the rarest books on gambling of the early 20th century. The artist featured throughout this volume is Mr. E. C. Mountfort, who 'belongs to the old order of things, and received his early education at the South Kensington School of Art… He was also engaged as the local artist of the London "Graphic," and when the "Daily Graphic" first made its appearance, he was given a position on that paper, continuing to work for both publications' (p. 83). At the end is a list of spoof book publications, among otjher things revealing Beston's obsession with the King of Albania.'The witty author of this work was a prosperous bookmaker named Ernest Beston who was born in 1874. He purchased the place [Fernwood Grange], later nicknamed "the man in the moon" and over the years he added in the grounds a Switchback railway, and aviary, 13 peacocks,4 Rolls Royce's and 4 four big St Bernard dogs which he kept in big cages and to the main house he added a Cinema, music room, a Chinese lounge, an Abyssinian boudoir and a Ballroom, so it seemed he had very expensive tastes. Both Mr Ernest W.Beston and his wife known as Mrs E.W.Beston entertained lavishly at Fernwood then for reasons unknown Mrs E.W.Beston disappeared from the scene round about 1916 and another Mrs Beston appeared Daisy Mary "Dulcie" who was an Irish Catholic had been married before and the went on to have five children, all girls.... Betty who in later life became a nun, Joy, Shirley, Sylvia and Valerie. The children grew up never knowing their parents where never married till later in life ( but that is another story) During the late 1920's Fernwood was sold and the family moved to the continent' (Birmingham History Forum on Fernwood Grange, online).

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