Introduction

I possess a complete run of Granta except for issue number one. Granta 1 is forever unobtainable, I’ve decided. It’s gone, it’s vanished. I’ve been trying for years to find it in antiquarian booksellers, and more lately on the Web, but in vain (I have the 1989 limited-edition reprint, of course, but it’s not the same, not the genuine article). And my search is fuelled by the bitterly enduring knowledge that, once, I did actually have Granta 1. I bought it in Oxford in 1979 and owned it for a while and then lost it. I have the original numbers two to six, also extremely rare, the issues that appeared before Granta’s association with Penguin began with the celebrated Granta 7 — the first ‘Best of Young British Novelists’ — but having them and the rest and not having number one still irritates and frustrates.