PAN Fans

“Panorex”

tikitnet — Mon, 20 May 2013 07:33:07 +0000

In the 1970′s Peter Tietjen was working at PAN (at the same time as Ken Hatherley) and he came up with a design for a “self-erecting piece of display material that was going to completely revolutionise in-store book displays”

I found the following on an Australian website;

DISPLAY UNIT – 198704242
DESIGN DETAILS
Owner: Pan Books Ltd Designers: Peter Tietjen Description: DISPLAY UNIT Statement: Monopoly is claimed in the shape and/or configuration of a display unit as illustrated in the accompanying representations. This page contains all relevant details related to design number 198704242. This design was lodged on 18/11/1987 and has a status of Currently Not Renewed. The owner of the design is registered as Pan Books Ltd They used the attorney firm Griffith Hack to file this. The design was registered on 15/12/1988 and has been renewed to 18/11/1993

I’ve tried to contact Peter but no luck so far. Does anyone know if it actually “revolutionised” displays as we know them?

‘Best Of American Crime Fiction’ Series

tikitnet — Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:41 +0000

A couple of months ago I mentioned the PAN ‘Great Western Novels’ series and managed to find five titles. I have now come across titles as part of PAN’s ‘Best Of American Crime Fiction’ series but so far have only found a few labelled as such from Erle Stanley Gardener, Hillary Waugh, Patricia Highsmith and Charles Williams. Ed McBain and John D MacDonald are also supposed to be part of the series but none of their books that I have state this, they just appear in a list on the back covers of other authors titles.
……. and talking of Gardner has anyone any more with this style of cover or any more in the series? I have found ‘The Case Of The Blonde Bonanza’ and ‘The Case Of The Mischievous Doll’ both listed as having 1975 PAN editions but I’ve not found an image of them.

Foreign News

tikitnet — Thu, 09 May 2013 12:44:30 +0000

Having returned from Gran Canaria this week I have to say I was very disappointed. Not in the place or the weather but in the lack of book shops of any sort let alone second hand ones. A church jumble sale and a couple of Sunday market stalls also proved fruitless.

On a more positive note my ‘overseas agent’ Bazeer Flumore who I’m sure you don’t need reminding runs the excellent PizGloria website did at least spot some PANs at the annual Clunes Book Fair but unfortunately not those the two elusive titles I’m after.

I was pleased to see the copy of “Return Of The Tiger” in the box as I have the original artwork for this cover and it has been displayed on the sidebar for a little while.

PAN Branded Merchandise

tikitnet — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 08:00:20 +0000

As I’ve noted before PAN didn’t seem to go in for branded merchandise as much as other publishers like Penguin but I do have a couple of examples that I’ve unearthed. The first is a shoulder bag and the second a Stratton powder compact. Were these given away or did they have to be paid for and has anyone any other examples we can add?

Dust Jackets

tikitnet — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:50:15 +0000

I’d like to say thank you to Jack for telling me about two books I didn’t know had dust jackets. I think it is probably the usual story of PAN updating from old stock especially with these to make them match the others in the series. The two are from “Battle Of Britain” namely T45 “Full Circle” with the Shepherd cover having a Glenn Steward jacket and “Eagle Day” with the Ettridge cover again with a Steward jacket.

Founder of PAN Books Alan Bott Part 6

tikitnet — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 07:19:30 +0000

As I’ve mentioned before Alan Bott and his wife were great friends with Hugh Walpole and often stayed with him at his house “Brackenburn Lodge” in the Lake District. In 1941 Walpole dedicated two of his publications to Alan. The first was number 9 in the MacMillan War Pamphlets series of 15

The second was “The Blind Man’s House” dedicated to both Alan Bott and his wife Josephine (nee Blumenfeld)

It was while at Brackenburn Lodge near Keswick that Walpole wrote his quartet the “Rogue Herries Chronicles”

On a different subject my daughter bought me a Kindle for my birthday and she was surprised at how pleased I was. I had to admit it was because it has wi-fi and my phone doesn’t so I can now check up on all those covers I’m never quite sure of, buy and then find I already have several (as long as there’s a McDonalds close by)

PAN Piper 67′s?

tikitnet — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 07:09:30 +0000

I had a recent enquiry from a fellow PAN Fan Jem who asked about PAN Pipers specifically MP67 “Australia:Her Story” (MP because it cost 5/-) and XP67 “Enemy Of Rome” (XP because it cost 3/6) and who wondered why PAN had used the same number for both titles?

This is a mistake on PANs part in that XP67 should really be XP70.

Whitakers Paperbacks In Print Winter 1965/66

If XP67 had been incorrectly labelled as ??47 (anyone know what it is?) then it might be a more understandable mistake.

Founder of PAN Books Alan Bott Part 5

tikitnet — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 08:16:06 +0000

Alan Bott joined the Royal Flying Corps as a member of the 70th. Squadron (Umpty Squadron) in April 1917. He was credited with 5 ‘kills’ during the time he was in France. It was after he joined the 111th Squadron that Captain Bott crashed in the desert on April 22nd. and became imprisoned by the Turks. He later wrote about his escape to Constantinople in Eastern Flights which had earlier been serialised in several publications notably Harper’s Monthly Magazine where it appeared in 5 parts from September 1919. The ‘crash’ was featured in a painting by Stuart Read which is currently in storage at the Imperial War Museum in London. He continued to fly and in 1928 he got his certificate of competence from the Hampshire Aeroplane Club.

STOP PRESS

tikitnet — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 11:04:37 +0000

This weeks blog will appear when a cat has stopped having kittens under our bed – and it’s not even our cat!

UPDATE Just one kitten but very sweet. Looks like it has got its colouring from all of the four possible fathers!

Life Size

Updates

tikitnet — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 08:06:30 +0000

Having had two family bereavements in very short succession I’ve not really had my mind on the blog for this week. I have managed to finish collecting a couple of sets published by Piccolo, one of which wasn’t helped by Amazon/Alibris/Abebooks/Biblio all having the same ISBN for two different titles and every time I got the one I didn’t want!

The ‘Dial’ series from Piccolo
The ‘Do You Know’ series from Piccolo