Rose Macaulay – Pleasure in Ruins. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1953. First edition. In original dust jacket. One of Macaulay's most distinctive late works, Pleasure in Ruins blends travel writing, cultural history and meditation on time, decay and memory. Moving from classical antiquity and the dissolved monasteries of Henry VIII to the bomb-damaged churches and cities of post-war Britain and Europe, Macaulay treats ruins not as picturesque curiosities but as records of belief, ambition and destruction. Written after the Blitz - in which her own London home was destroyed - the book combines wit, irony and deep classical learning with a modern awareness of cultural fragility. It stands close in spirit to The Towers of Trebizond and is widely regarded as a major work of mid-twentieth-century English nonfiction. An uncommon first edition in the scarce original jacket, offered with significant association material linking Macaulay to Roger Senhouse of Secker & Warburg. Association material included: Autograph postcard from Rose Macaulay to Roger Senhouse, postmarked London W1, 8 PM, 9 March 1954, sent from 20 Hinde House, W1. The message reads approximately: "Very many thanks for the card. I very rarely go to see the pictures - I couldn't remember what gallery they were in. Thanks for your sympathy re burglars - The Glasgow repairman who came to mend my fridge, & to whom I told the story, said, with contempt, 'Och! no one knocks me down & gets away with it,' so I felt small & contemptible. I see that two burglars have now murdered a hotel porter (must have been the same, I fear). I hope you are well again. Everyone but me seems to have been in high fervour at the Reform that evening - Rose." The reference to burglars who had "now murdered a hotel porter" almost certainly alludes to the widely reported killing of George Frederick Smart, night porter at the Aban Court Hotel, Kensington, in the early hours of 9 March 1954. The exact alignment of the postmark with the date of the murder strongly suggests Macaulay was reacting to contemporary newspaper reports. Invitation card from Macaulay to Senhouse for cocktails (6-8) at the Lansdowne Club, Berkeley Square, signed "his Rose Macaulay", with RSVP address at 20 Hinde House. Mounted and overpainted engraving of Piazza Colonna, inscribed on the reverse "Christmas Greetings & Love from Rose". Four contemporary newspaper clippings relating chiefly to Macaulay. Two pages of pencil autograph notes by Roger Senhouse to the rear endpapers, dated 20 July 1958, reflective and personal in nature, mentioning E. M. Forster as "my best living novelist". Handwriting consistent with known examples. From the library of William St Clair (1937–2021), historian and author, with his signature to the front free endpaper. Condition: Very good in green cloth with red and gilt spine label. Light wear to boards. Original dust jacket not price clipped (25s net), with chipping and small losses at extremities and some toning; now protected in removable clear cover. Internally clean and sound, minor spotting and offsetting to endpapers. xvii + 466pp + plates (71 images plus 4 illustrations in the text). 224mm x 150mm x 42mm. A highly appealing association copy, linking Rose Macaulay with Roger Senhouse and the Secker & Warburg circle, and offering a vivid documentary glimpse of literary London in 1954.