The Llano Kid History

Harry Jones wrote The Llano Kid during 1961, whilst he was living in Priory Road, Shirehampton. His agency, Curtis Brown, secured a deal for the book in November 1961 with Frederick Muller, which had published his previous two books. As with the previous two deals, the fee comprised a one–off payment of £100, but this time Muller came back with the proposal that this book constitute the first in a three–book contract. This was agreed during January 1962, with the following two books to be delivered at six monthly intervals.

In the meantime, a thriller from Jones, Mann for Murder, had been declined by all publishers with whom the agency placed it, so it wasn’t all good news during this period. (Mann for Murder is to be published by Burnham Priory in 2015.) On the western front, Jones submitted the next manuscript, Saddle Tramps, well in advance of deadline, in fact even before The Llano Kid was published.

The Llano Kid came out on 3 August (paperback) and 20 August (cloth-back) and Jones felt compelled to write to say how much he liked the way that the book had been produced. Original copies of both paperback and cloth-back versions are incredibly hard to find.

Trivia: The Llano Kid is name–checked, as is Hal Jons, in the book Tabitha Miggins, Ship’s Cat (on the Pill Ferry), by Philippa Perry, published 2013.