Surpressed by the UK Home Office on grounds of obscenity on its publication in 1929, The Sleeveless Errand was published in English in Paris the same year. One of the publishers, Jack Kahane, would open The Obelisk Press the same year and become quite famed for salacious output. Norah C James' first book being banned for obscenity did not deter her, and she went on to produce some 70 plus works. Sleeveless Errand has as recently as 2013, been described as "a story about jaded heterosexual bohemians."