If anyone is around Wolverhampton the pop up bookshop is back now for a couple of weeks and they are having a summer clearance sale where all books are half listed price. It is in the Community Hub on the ground floor of the Mander Centre. I don’t know if I’ll manage it this time but I am down to just using a stick when out and about so possibly sometime in the last week. The photo is of getting ready which requires a lot of hard work so if you do go because of this post please mention to them you saw it here as I do try to give them a plug every time.

Fellow PAN Fan Gavin Scott,  novelist, broadcaster and writer of the Emmy-winning mini-series “Mists of Avalon”, Dreamworks’ “Small Soldiers”, Working Title’s “The Borrowers” and Sci Fi’s “Legends of Earthsea”, has updated his page mentioning his love of PAN books.  I’m not sure if the part where he mentions Duncan Forrester possibly reading a PAN book was down to me as I did suggest this at one time.

Every now and again I actually read one of the books in my PAN collection which comes as a surprise to me as well. This time it was ‘Cause of Death’ by Frank Smyth. of which I have two editions both dated 1982 and identical apart from cover and price of which the latter is the only way I can really tell which came first. Once again I am left wondering why PAN felt the need to change the cover in so short a space of time and why a mention of an foreword by Colin Wilson got dropped? I actually prefer the simpler earlier one. I’ve also included ‘I’m Jack’ as it is the only other PAN title bearing the name of Frank Smyth I can find.

I’ve not got desperate enough to watch ‘Shark! Celebrity Infested Waters’ on ITV but I did like the way they had based the introductory title on the book/poster. Just a pity they didn’t used the ‘teeth’ font Ken Hatherley designed for the PAN edition of ‘Jaws

Following on from my newly acquired artworks from last week, this ones by Ed Blandford for G142 ‘Escape of the Amethyst’ Blandford’s name is visible on the artwork but does not appear where it should on the cover. He became the art editor at Panther and ended up in the 1970s drawing 8 page back-up comic strips for things like ‘War Picture Library’ and according to Steve Holland “They weren’t very good”

I see Martin Cruz Smith passed away last week and PAN published several of his novels which I’ve added to a page HERE. There are more but I’ve not included ones that don’t have the PAN logo on the front cover. Martin Cruz Smith (Martin William Smith 3/111942 – 11/7/2025) was born in Reading, Pennsylvania and died of Parkinson’s disease in San Rafael, California. He wrote many titles under several pseudonyms but the 11 Arkady Renko books he wrote as Cruz Smith. I intend to read his latest Renko novel ‘Hotel Ukraine’ published this year as when we were last in Moscow we stayed in this wonderful hotel, one of Stalin’s seven sisters. It was odd that news of his death first popped up on a Facebook page and it was days before the news outlets had caught up. His official website still doesn’t mention it but then again it doesn’t seem to have been updated for a few years.

In the Lancaster Guardian there was an article about The Old Pier Bookshop by Lucinda Herbert. What I found amusing was the part where it said “The Old Pier Bookshop opened in 1990, and is now crammed floor to ceiling with books including many over 50 years old” Wow that long ago is mind blowing, another century like! To read the article click HERE. I’ve not been but must add it to my list if it has books like that.

If you are looking to acquire 553 original artworks for PAN book covers they are currently up for offers on eBay. They form the basis for the book ‘Cover Me’ by Colin Larkin and as much as I would love to bid the premium bonds have let me down again.

I’ve added a few more covers related to the ‘Jeremy James’ books and I have also been in contact with Fred Apps who is looking to see if he has any of his original artwork. His Piccolo covers was based on the covers he did for Dent but I’m wondering why PAN felt the need to add eyes and a mouth to the train? The German, French and Turkish editions all use the artwork by Axel Scheffler. I feel there must be a few more edition out there so they’ll get added to my ‘to look out for’ list.

Having found a printer’s proof for X259 ‘The Exile’ by Pearl Buck that I had forgotten about, I have now added it to the page along with the original artwork by David Tayler.

I recently picked up a couple of pieces of original artwork and this week I’m including G140 ‘Jambo!’ by Olle Strandberg with a cover also by David Tayler. I have tried to get David back on Wikipedia but they keep saying there is copyright material. This is the content of the article without formatting and I’m blowed if I can see what they don’t like.
David Graham Tayler (21 February 1921 – 2 June 1985) was a British commercial artist who specialised in book cover art in the 1950s and 60s. He was best known for his careful research and detailed accuracy in depiction. Tayler was born in Lancaster, the son of Edward Douglas Tayler, organist and professor of music. The family moved to New Zealand in 1926 when E.D. Tayler took up the appointment of Supervisor & Director of Vocal Music in Schools. In 1931 E.D. Tayler resigned this position. In 1932 he was at the University of California, Berkeley. After E.D. Tayler’s untimely death at Berkeley in August 1932, Tayler returned to England with his mother. In 1937 he enrolled at Wimbledon School of Art where, by 1940, he completed a Teaching Diploma. When war broke out in 1939, Tayler joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve and served in the Home Guard. In 1940 he was called up into the RAF. In 1946 he enrolled in the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, and was awarded a diploma in 1948. In 1955, while teaching at Leatherhead County Secondary School, now Therfield School, Tayler illustrated his first book covers. Tayler illustrated covers for Corgi, Archer, Arrow, Mayflower Press & Pan books, as well as hardback publishers such as Harrap, Rich & Cowan, and Herbert Jenkins. The subjects were varied and included Westerns, War (WWII and former wars), Biography, Crime, Travel, Natural History, Romance. Tayler signed his pictures with TAYLER in capitals, usually horizontally but occasionally vertically. Comment by Pat Owen, Pan cover artist: “There were some artists who could do anything, and they were obviously given anything to do. There were some who were better at some things than others but, beyond that it was really who was available, who could do something quickly. David Tayler, for example, I’m pretty sure I am right in saying he needed about a month, so what he was given had to be carefully sorted out and we wouldn’t give him what we thought at the time was a trashy old book to do. He was given books worthy of his ability” The end of the 1960s, however, brought about a change in book cover illustration. Photographs were increasingly used and a style of painting which was less detailed and therefore more quickly completed became popular. Tayler was not the only artist to find he could no longer make a living through cover art. Tayler continued to paint while doing other work. He undertook commissions and exhibited his work locally. In 1952 he married Delma Savell, a former pupil of his at Leatherhead County Secondary School. They lived in Dorking, Surrey, and had one child, John Mark. In 1979, aged 58, Tayler suffered a stroke. He died on 2 June 1985. His residence at that time was the Gower Peninsula near Llanrhidian.
Tayler painted at least 77 signed covers for PAN and several more without a signature. There are 45 of his paintings in the sale on eBay.

I had not heard of the Jeremy James books by David Henry Wilson until I picked up a few published by PAN under their Piccolo imprint and later as Pipers. Considering they seemed to have had a longish publishing history, still being in print in several languages, I’m not sure how I missed them. The earlier editions had covers by Fred Apps followed by Ann Johns and then Axel Scheffler. David Wilson also wrote other titles published by PAN and I’ve Included a few of those on the page. What is annoying is that a lot of sellers use ‘stock’ images for two of the Jeremey James titles and I would love to know if these actually exist?
TO BE CONTINUE …….

I saw a couple of Leslie Thomas covers I hadn’t got on eBay at a silly price but with ‘make an offer’ available. I made what I thought was actually a very generous offer but which was turned down straight away. I replied to say what I was offering was as high as I was going to go, take it or leave it. The seller when very quiet but just before the end date, with no other bids, they accepted my offer. I still think I paid too much but there it is.

I put a page of covers for ‘The Island of Doctor Moreau’ by H G Wells together a while ago and was convinced I’d posted it as part of a blog but when I went to recheck it I couldn’t find it. Maybe I intended to post it but then got distracted. Apologies if I have but here are the different versions of the PAN edition.

Recently I bought a bundle of Leslie Thomas titles for just one of them so you can imagine how miffed I was to get a message from the seller to say he had found them all apart from one, the only one I really wanted! I settled for a full refund as I had all the others but if anyone can help with a copy or a scan of the back cover and date I would be very grateful. I have the front cover from the sellers listing and have added it to the page for X700 ‘This Time Next Week’

It’s always nice to come across a ‘new’ series and this time it was for ‘The Magic Road’ by Kevin Scally from 1984 of which there are four titles as far as I can ascertain. They are all hardback and a larger size and designed to be easily navigated by young children but I’m not so sure about that myself. I’ll get my 5 year old nephew to test them out next time he comes to visit. I’m still tempted to scan the whole book in and make the arrows ‘hot spots’ so you can do it online.

It’s getting easier to sit at the computer since the hip operation but not as easy to leap up and get a book or two from the library shelves when I need to scan them in. Hopefully I’ll be back to it soon. Oddly I was rung up last week by a district nurse to make an appointment to have my surgical clips removed. I later realised the date she had given me was five days too soon so I rang back on the same number to discover they had no record of me on their system and no date which was supposedly in their diary and in fact no referral to them from the hospital at all. I await to see what happens.

The blog is on hold while I recover from a week in hospital. Last Monday, when I was out on our disused railway track I, managed to get the lace of one boot wrapped around the hooks of the other resulting in me come to a very abrupt halt. When I tried to stand up I realised something was amiss but this time I’ve only had half a hip replacement and not a full one like last time, What is it with me, hips and art exhibitions in Wiltshire? Last time is was in Salisbury when at least I got to see the Richard Chopping exhibition whereas yesterday I should have been in Westbury for the Tom Stimpson exhibition. Hopefully normal service will be resume next week.

PAN didn’t publish many of Catherine Cookson’s novels, apart from three for children under their Piccolo imprint, but Corgi did and when I saw a piece of original artwork by Dave Pether for ‘Tilly Trotter Wed’ at a reasonable price I couldn’t resists. This artwork was used first on the series where Cookson’s name appeared as above but also reissued on a later edition. I’ve put together a few other examples on a page HERE. (Thanks to Boscobel Old Hall’s secondhand bookshop for most of them) Dave Pether was born in Southall in 1943 and lived and worked there for all his life. He went to Twickenham Tech Art College and contributed to the well known OZ magazine and was also a musician. His band ‘The Muleskinners’ were part of the early 1960’s art school R&B scene. A Motorbike accident cut short his musical career but after college he worked in an animation studio and then joined the Young Artists Agency and John Spencer before setting up his own illustration company ‘Dave Pether Illustration’ in the 1970s. In the 1990’s Dave started teaching art at Brunel University and taught there for 12 years. During this time he moved into doing video game illustration including working on the very popular ‘Lemmings’

Back on April 20th BBC Radio Four did a dramatisation of ‘Casino Royale’ and I was going to listen to it but it appears not to be available anymore. It looks like it was a very condensed version running for just under sixty minutes. What reminded me was Jeremy Birch send me a pile of clippings from ‘The Times’ which mentioned it and the article was illustrated with a copy of PAN X232.

Having posted a couple of Canadian editions of PAN titles recently, HERE are two more from Douglas Adams. They are almost the same as the UK printings apart from saying ‘Printed in Canada’ and having the ISBN printed on the front covers as well as the back. There are often other differences such as the paper type or card cover thickness but not this time and not even any green stained edges!

In 1937 W D and H O Wills produced a set of 40 cards featuring ‘Famous British Authors’ They were included with the 20’s pack of cigarettes as they were too big to go in the 10s. What I was impressed by was the number of authors that can be found to have works published by PAN. Maybe I need to add links to them, well maybe one day. I was intrigued to see the National Portrait Gallery included them in their collection and will sell you prints at various sizes and prices plus greeting cards and a license. You can buy a set for under £5 then it’s easy enough to produce your own and as there is no artist credited I presume they are out of copyright?

One of the Wills cards, specifically number 39, prompted me to rescan all the PAN book covers of titles by Sir P(elham) G(renville) Wodehouse. They are 107 ‘Summer Lightning’, ‘112 ‘Thank You Jeeves’ and six later titles with cover artwork by Edward Mortelmans from1968. Wodehouse was born in Guildford on 15/10/1881 and died in New York on 14/02/1975 just a month after he was knighted. He wrote 71 novels and 42 plays plus numerous short stories.

Just to complete the trio of Wodehouse connections this week I picked up a later copy of  X709 ‘Nuts in May’ by Richard Gordon. The earlier edition has a quote from Wodehouse on the front cover. I am puzzled as to who gave away the 1973 edition as although it mentions PAN inside it says on the cover it was a TOTAL special edition. Now is that TOTAL the magazine, the toothpaste, the fuel company or something else completely?

I think I have mentioned it before but Tom Stimpson‘s sister Lesley is organising an exhibition of some of his original work in Westbury starting on the 14th June when it would have been Tom’s 70th birthday.

Why not visit Maurice at Zardoz Records and Books at Unit 4, Mill Lane, Hawkeridge, Westbury, BA134LD while you are there. Thousands of books for just a pound.

As an aside, and just to show I’m not a one trick pony, I am also a ranger for a disused railway line that is being repurposed as a walking/cycling greenway. The first of four sections has been surfaced and an official opening ceremony took place. I was surprised to be asked to cut the ribbon it but this was probably because I have been doing management work on it since the last century. What they didn’t tell me, because of health and safety gone mad, they were kiddies scissors that wouldn’t cut a jelly hence the laughs all round!

I recently picked up a couple of Canadian PAN editions, one with the same cover as the UK but printed in Canada, the other with a different cover also printed in Canada. What was interesting, well I though so, was that they both had green dyed page edges. The books are ‘Hungry as the Sea’ by Wilbur Smith and ‘La Luna’ by George Malko.

Rog Peyton asked me if he could have a scan of the first and second printing of ‘Diary of a Nobody’ by George and Weedon Grossmith, a book from1892 which I still find funny after several readings. While scanning I took the opportunity to scan at a larger size and to recheck the board cover colours. I’m still not sure about one that appears light blue but as it doesn’t have a dust jacket I think it is just a sun faded version of the dark blue one I already have.

While looking through my copies of ‘Diary of a Nobody’ I found a couple had the same Foyles sticker but one also had a postcard in it which on investigation is a story in itself. The card was printed by ‘The Sampson Press’, Woostock and the artist was Alison McKenzie. More about Alison and her sister can be found in the book ‘The McKenzie Sisters: The Lives and Art of Winifred and Alison McKenzie’ by Aylwin Clark. Click HERE to see a photo of them.

‘Let’s Go’ were a series of travel guides started in 1960 by the Harvard Student Agency. They developed from a 20 sheet mimeographed pamphlet, put together by 18-year-old freshman Oliver Koppell, into a comprehensive range of 11 titles covering more than 40 countries. It was in 1989 that PAN started publishing them in the UK with St Martins Press doing the same in the US. They ceased publication in 2020 as a result of COVID.

I’m always enjoy watching Jules Burt’s videos even when they are not necessarily connected to PAN but HERE is one that is. He looks at the Great PANs and it’s fascinating to see all the covers amongst which are some I have the artwork for and some of which are real clunkers.