2005, London, Picador, inscribed "Dearest Babette what a pleasure to sign for you whose work I so adore", pp294, black and white illustrations, black cloth in dustwrapper. The autobiography of the infamous publisher, from Jonathan Cape, who work with Joseph Heller, John Fowles, Salman Rushdie, Roald Dahl among many others, he chose Babette Cole to illustrate an explicit book explaining to the really young how babies are made. "My first chose was the artist Babette Cole because I felt confident of her style, her humour, her imagination... She immediately invented the perfect title, Mummy Laid an Egg, and we were off to a brilliant start. Babette's genius was to find a structure through which the story could be told without vulgarity...After Mummy Laid an Egg, I proposed to Babette that we think of it as the first in a series of books for children on taboo subjects. Among the titles we have published are Two of Everything (divorce), and Hair in Funny Places (puberty)." Maschler bought a remote stone cottage in the black mountains where he entertained many famous writers, including Allen Ginsberg, who wrote his poem Wales Visitation while staying at Carney and famously indulged in LSD.