# Is "The Child Garden" by Geoff Ryman a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Child Garden by Geoff Ryman (Unwin Hyman, 1989) is identified by: UK Unwin Hyman hardcover, London 1989, full title The Child Garden, or A Low Comedy; bound in blue cloth boards and issued in a pictorial dust jacket with cover art by Dave McKean, the jacket carrying its original printed price on an unclipped copy. The UK Unwin Hyman 1989 hardcover is the true first; it precedes the US St.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- UK Unwin Hyman hardcover, London 1989, full title The Child Garden, or A Low Comedy; bound in blue cloth boards and issued in a pictorial dust jacket with cover art by Dave McKean, the jacket carrying its original printed price on an unclipped copy
- Unwin Hyman was a short-lived imprint, so clean jacketed firsts are relatively scarce
- Publisher imprint reads Unwin Hyman
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Geoff Ryman |
| Publisher | Unwin Hyman |
| Year | 1989 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | UK Unwin Hyman hardcover, London 1989, full title The Child Garden, or A Low Comedy; bound in blue cloth boards and issued in a pictorial… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
UK Unwin Hyman hardcover, London 1989, full title The Child Garden, or A Low Comedy; bound in blue cloth boards and issued in a pictorial dust jacket with cover art by Dave McKean, the jacket carrying its original printed price on an unclipped copy. Unwin Hyman was a short-lived imprint, so clean jacketed firsts are relatively scarce.

## Is this the true first?
The UK Unwin Hyman 1989 hardcover is the true first; it precedes the US St. Martin's Press edition of 1990. The novel won the 1990 Arthur C. Clarke Award and the 1990 John W. Campbell Memorial Award. It was shortlisted for, but did not win, the BSFA Award for Best Novel; the incorporated novella Love Sickness had earlier won the 1988 BSFA Award for short fiction.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The US St. Martin's edition is the first American, not the true first; later Gollancz/Bantam and SF Masterworks issues are reprints or first-thus reissues, distinguished by their own imprint and copyright-page settings.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Child Garden* by Geoff Ryman a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-child-garden
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.