We have just returned from a holiday in Paris with a couple of disappointments and one unexpected surprise. The first disappointment was how few of the Bouquinistes (book boxes) were open even right by Notre Dame. In the past there have been dozens of them to peruse but this time very few. It could have been because it was a morning in the middle of the week but the ones that were open seemed to be selling anything but books so no more ‘Anticipation’ titles to add to my small collection.

While we were in Paris there were commemorations for Remembrance Day on the 11th November and for the 10th anniversary of the Bataclan Theatre massacre on the 13th. The second event put paid to our plans for the day which involved travelling around to visit book shops. There were endless cavalcades of vehicles with flashing blue lights carrying dignitaries to the six sites of the massacres where 130 citizens died. They held ceremonies at each site which involved closing what seemed like the whole arrondissement plus any metro stations in the area. There were armed guards around everywhere as they were worried in case there might be a repeat of something similar. We decided to visit the Jardin des Plantes and La Menagerie instead which, surprisingly, we thoroughly enjoyed.

The one unexpected plus to the trip, which was a river cruise, was two nights moored at the Quay d’ Austerlitz. It took a few minutes to realise why this sounded familiar before it came to me. It was where PAN’s boat ‘Laloun’ tied up to load the first PAN titles which were printed in France. The photo below is taken from the bridge in the background of the photo above. Click HERE to read the memories of ships boy Gordon Young from back in 1947 and how the Quay fits into all of it. I’ve contacted Gordon but no reply yet. I hasten to add our boat is the white one in the photo below.

It was also interesting going through the Border Control as we were on a coach and new rules had only come into force 9 days previously which the driver had never encountered before. We arrived at the Port of Dover and stopped at the first check point to be told we had to go back out and follow a convoluted route to get to the Cruise Terminal to be checked in. When we eventually got there, there where rows of face and finger print scanning machines all standing idle. Instead we had to join the long queues to two booths where the scans were done manually! We then rejoined the coach, which was then sealed with a sticker on the door. Back to the port where the man at the check point said something and the driver who, understandably so he could hear, opened the door thus breaking the seal and so it was back to the scanning point all over again. Luckily a kind official there took pity on us and just put a new seal on the door. It was the same coming back with again rows of self scanning machines all sitting idle. On the plus side, sailing with DFDS, we got free meal vouchers so it was a full English breakfast on the way out and Harry Ramsden’s fish and chips on the way back.

I know it’s not PAN related but this site is also for those that do judge a book by its cover and occasionally looks at the rivals. I’ve just had an email from Heritage Auctions to tell me there is a sale of well over one hundred artworks for vintage Signet covers closing on December 2nd. They currently range from $1 to $5,500 for a Robert McGinnis with all prices in-between. I shall be keeping an eye on it but I don’t think I’ll be bidding as once all the extras are added on the final price can be well over the sale price. I checked one at $1 to which you would have to add nearly $100 for buyers premium and shipping from the States.

Still scanning Walpole covers so here are the later ‘Herries Chronicles’ from 1977. They have photo covers without a credit that I can see and part of the photos were used on the two volumes from 1985 

This week’s random pick off the shelf is ‘The PAN Book of Limericks’ of which there were four editions from 1963 and 1967. The line drawings on the covers and inside are by Richard Taylor who was born in Fort William, Ontario in 1902 and best known for his cartoons in magazines where he signed his work R.Taylor. The ‘New Yorker’ and ‘Playboy’ publishing his work after he moved to the United States, where there were more opportunities and better pay for cartoonists. He married Maxine MacTavish in Toronto, Ontario and they had no children. Taylor died in Bethel, Connecticut in 1970. PAN also published ‘A Little Treasury of Limericks Fair and Foul’ and ‘The Blue Peter Book of Limericks’

I’ve recently been in communication with Gwilym Lloyd, an actor and fellow appreciator of book cover art, who also produces calendars featuring themed book covers at Paprika Print. The two I like for 2026 are for Val Biro and George Simeon but Gwilym is hoping to produce some future ones centred around PAN artists such as Sam ‘PEFF’ Peffer, Pat Owen and Hans Helweg. I’m happy to help with hi res scans once copyright has been sorted so watch this space.

As I mentioned last week I’ve been asked to write an article on Hugh Walpole and PAN Books for the Hugh Walpole Society Journal. To that end I’ve started rescanning the covers and have just completed the ‘Rogue Herries’ quartet from 1971 with covers by John Raynes two of which are signed. This brought back memories of when Jules Burt and I visited John and his wife Sheila in Falmouth in 2012. We were made very welcome and plied with tea and cakes while looking at original artwork if I remember correctly. Sadly John passed away in 2019 aged 90.

I know this isn’t PAN but a couple of weeks ago on the BBC programme ‘The Antiques Roadshow’ there was a gentleman with 7 ‘Dr Who’ titles from Target. I have all the ‘Dr Who’ titles from 1 to somewhere around 147 so I was interested to see what price was given as to their worth. I know his were signed by Tom Baker and mine aren’t but a quick search produced a copy of ‘Dr Who and the Day of the Daleks’ signed by Tom Baker for £8.98 so I bought it. The valuation given for the 7 on the programme was £400!

And as if it was planned after mentioning both Jules Burt and ‘Dr Who’ in this blog, a recent video from Jules looks at the work of Sean Coleman who produces pastiche covers as postcards. This time they are mainly ‘Dr Who’ titles but done as Penguin covers. PAN gets a mention near the end of the video and I had already looked at these back in 2022 when Sean produced ‘Inside Number 9’ titles (A BBC TV Series) in the style of the ‘PAN Books of Horror’  Sean is also producing three ‘Dr Who’ pastiche Penguin covers as Christmas cards so get some now while stocks last.

This week I’m looking at the titles from Frank O’Connor, Sean O’Casey and Eileen O’Casey published by PAN in the 1970’s. The majority of them have a photographic cover of which I am not that keen but as there was so many of them I have decided I will share them.

Frank O’Connor (Michael Francis O’Donovan) was born in 1903 in Cork, County Cork, Ireland and died on March 10, 1966 in Dublin. He was an Irish playwright, novelist, and short-story writer who, as a critic and as a translator of Gaelic works from the 9th to the 20th century, served as an interpreter of Irish life and literature to the English-speaking world. Raised in poverty, a childhood he recounted in An Only Child, O’Connor received little formal education before going to work as a librarian in Cork and later in Dublin. 

Sean O’Casey (John Casey) was born 30th March 1880 in Dublin and died 18 September 1964 in Torquay. He was an Irish dramatist and was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes.  O’Casey’s first accepted play, ‘The Shadow of a Gunman’ was performed at the Abbey Theatre in 1923. While in London to supervise the West End production of ‘Juno and the Paycock’ O’Casey fell in love with Eileen Carey (stage name). The couple were married in 1927 and remained in London until 1938 when they moved to Totnes.

Eileen O’Casey (Eileen Kathleen Reynolds) born in Dublin on the 27th December 1900, She attended the Brentwood Ursuline Convent High School and having read ‘Juno and the Paycock’ she developed an obsessive need to meet the author. She met O’Casey when 17 years his junior, and he immediately invited her to take the role of Nora Clitheroe in ‘The Plough and the Stars’ for its first London production. The O’Caseys married on the 23rd September 1927 in the Catholic church of ‘All Souls and the Redeemer’ in Chelsea. She died in London on the 9th April 1995.

Short blog this week as it was our Grandsons 6th birthday which meant a trip to Kent to join in the celebrations. This was followed by the opening of the last section of the disused railway track to Lichfield we’ve worked on for the last 18 months. This appeared on the BBC News but the reel made by Lichfield District Council was much better. Click HERE to see it. Annoyingly they say it is Lichfield to Chasewater when it should Walsall as it is a continuation of the track we have been cleared over the last eight years. We then decided to go away in our camper making a site booking just before they announced Storm Benjamin was on the way and to batten down the hatches. We decided we would go and sit it out but in fact ended up sitting out under a blue sky in the sun. Certainly no sign of a storm here in the Midlands. Then the family came up from Kent as it was half term ……..

If you are anywhere near Wolverhampton the popup bookshop has made a welcome return until the 16th November In the Community Hub shop in the Mander Centre. I shall go along this week and hope it is well supported as it is a great initiative and takes a lot of setting up as can be seen here.

I was pleased to be asked to contribute a couple of cover scans to the Hugh Walpole Society Journal to go with an article in the latest edition. They were for ‘Mr Perrin and Mr Trail’ being PAN 48 by Bip Pares and PAN X508 by Pat Owen although there is a third painting, artist unknown, on the dustjacket usually found on PAN 48.

I have been asked to contribute a short article featuring Walpole’s books as published by PAN, I’m glad they said ‘short’ as it will be mainly covers of which I think there must be at least seventeen that I can think of off the top of my head.

I picked up the above painting by John R Keay which I was told comes from his estate. He painted it for ‘Look and Learn’ and strikes me a being a little odd. Why is there a stove, table and bed but no roof and where is the snow? John Keay, not to be confused with Jack Keay, painted at least 15 covers for PAN from 1951 with ‘Sorry You’ve Been Troubled’ through to 1958 with ‘A Gun For Inspector West’

Having mentioned last week the optimistic seller of a cover of ‘Seven Years in Tibet’ on eBay made me have a look at mine again and I noticed I had two copies of GP40 from 1956 on the shelf. Looking at them side by side I think I kept both as one has the price and the other has a PAN sticker covering it up. This was often done when UK priced copies were sent abroad and they didn’t have appropriate price stickers for that particular country.

Tom Lilley is a name I’m not familiar with although I do have two of his titles published by PAN. They are ‘The Projects Section’ and ‘The K Section’ and both feature Ralph Carter. I’ve tried to find out more about Lilley but not had much success. I think he published another two titles featuring Carter but I’m not sure of the specific order as two of them claim to be his first book. Were they the same but with different titles in different countries? I’ve put all four on a page HERE.

After mentioning some covers I was after I’ve had a good week tracking them down plus one title that has been on a wants list for quite a while. They were two editions of ‘Peyton Place’ from 1972 and 1976, the missing copy of ‘Down All The Days’ from 1971 plus two editions of ‘The Pan Book of Crosswords 5’ I’m still after several books of crosswords so if anyone can help with a scan or the book if unwanted from this list then please email or comment. As always I have to mention I’m still after a copy of X705.

I picked up another copy of ‘Oliver Twist’ illustrated by Hans Helweg as it was signed. What caught my attention was the dedication is in English but the book is written in Danish.

I do love the optimism of some sellers on eBay after spotting THIS had been relisted yet again.

Recently Ray Steptoe posted on Facebook several editions of ‘The Small Woman’ On looking more closely I’ve realised there is an edition I haven’t got. He shows five spines and so I’m now looking for the 1975 variant, another to add to the ever growing wants list.

I started to make a list of PAN published authors who may have been born or died around the date of a blog. Looks like I fell at the first hurdle as I had Christy Brown down as dying on the 7th October when in fact it was September. Not wanting to waste the scans of his titles and editions I have, I’m sharing them now. I’m sure I have the 1971 edition of ‘Down All The Days’ but can I find it hence a cover taken from the web as a temporary stop gap. Christy Brown was an Irish writer and painter born in Dublin (05/06/1932) He had cerebral palsy and could only write or type with the toes of one foot. His is probably most well known for his autobiography ‘My Left Foot’ which was later made into a 1989 Academy Award-winning film of the same name. He died in Somerset aged 49 (07/09/1981)

Another excellent video from Jules Burt has him looking through his PAN Majors and later titles. I love to see those covers although as usual there are one or two clunkers amongst them.

I have been a bit distracted recently playing with my newly acquired LEGO set of ‘Mindstorms’ When I retired, but returned to work part time, I went round schools with 15 sets trying to get the pupils to use them. I found it very frustrating wanting to do it all for them as most didn’t have a clue but knew I couldn’t. I’ve hankered after a set ever since and finally bit the bullet and looked on eBay. There were sets at all prices but I found one of version 2.0 at a good price and which I prefer because of the computer programming software rather than the later version 3.0. I started to watch it expecting it to soar but was out on the night it closed so image my surprise the next day  to get an offer of 50% off as it hadn’t sold. I’m now really enjoying myself with LEGO  having nearly forgotten how much fun it is, dare I say almost as much fun as collecting PAN books?

Amazon still sell version 2.0 for £422, I paid £29.50!

I have been going through back copies of ‘The Bookseller’ and have found several references to PAN Books, some of which I’ve used before, but also quite a few new ones. I’ve selected some including one about a problem with the initial launch in 1947 which I’ve put HERE.. Others mention the launch of the PAN/Ballantine War Series on sale at ‘Fags and Mags’ and the  ‘International PAN Time’ while another refers to a ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ competition where PAN books could be won. Several of the other clipping refers to specific books which I’ll be adding to their pages over time.

I’ve come across a PAN edition of ‘Peyton Place’ I’ve not seen before but unfortunately it is in Turkey. I started a conversation with the seller but it has since gone quiet so all I have is a photo of the cover and not even a date. I may try and restart it but as $30 for postage was mentioned I’m not too sure. I’ve tacked it onto the end of my Grace Matalious page HERE as I think it is later than all the ones I have now. If any one has a spare copy and or could let me have a scan of the front and back covers plus the date then please email. This reminds me I’m still trying to find a 1972 copy of ‘Peyton Place’ as well.
UPDATE I think I have found a copy of Peyton Place from 1978 and it is in the post.

As I have mentioned I am part of group working to reopen a disused railway track as a Greenway for which we need the occasional fund raiser.  Recently we had a very interesting and informative talk on ‘The Great Train Robbery’ by Steve Geale. As he then went on to talk about local murderers this brought to mind a book I read a longtime ago which was PAN E1 ‘Encyclopedia of Murder’ by Colin Wilson and Pat Pitman from 1964. This was republished in 1984 followed up by ‘Encyclopedia of Modern Murder’ by Colin Wilson and this time Donald Seaman in 1986.  In my 1964 edition there has an erratum slip as above but I’ve compared the text in both the 1964 and 1984 editions and it seems to be the same?