“Kit Thackeray was born in Deal, Kent and worked for Southern Television before joining George Adamson and lions in Kenya. He has filmed all over Africa , has been up the Nile, driven across Brazil and most of Australasian and now lives abroad” That was taken from the blurb inside the two books of his PAN published which you can see HERE They are examples of a cover I like and one I’m not that bothered about, can you guess which one is which? I do like part of the endorsement in ‘Crownbird’ which says ‘It would make a good in-flight read if there was absolutely nothing else available’

With so many covers being photographs from the 1970s onwards, as in the above, although not my thing I still look out for historical fiction as, along with S/F, they still tend to have painted covers. Having picked up a bundle of Jean Stubbs novels it was good to see at least two of the three cover artists were familiar names, namely Gary Keane and Colin Backhouse. Jean Stubbs (23/10/1926 to 19/10/2012) was born Jean Yvonne Higham in Denton, Lancashire and went to Manchester High School for Girls, the Manchester School of Art and Loreburn Secretarial College in Manchester. She worked as a copywriter from 1964 to 1966 and was a reviewer for Books and Bookmen from 1965 to 1976. She died in the Helston, Cornwall

Mentioning Colin Backhouse reminds me of the two Futura books by Flora Pearce for which he painted the covers. The reason I was interested in these is that they are set locally to me and often mention the railway that ran through the village. This is now disused and has become a Greenway called the McClean Way named after the Victorian engineer who built it in 1849. I am one of the old fogies that look after it and can be found down there most Mondays and is much better since it got an upgraded surface last Easter. Just trying to remember which local celebrity they got to cut the ribbon at the opening? Ah Yes, it was me!

If any one finds themselves at a loose end in Wolverhampton then the Pop Up Bookshop is back in the Community Hub in the Mander Centre until 21st March. Opening hours are Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm, Saturday 9.30am to 5pm, Sunday 11am to 4pm.

Sad to say we’ve lost yet another artist last Thursday. It was Bob Layzell, who painted covers for many publishers including PAN. Bob was born in Brighton, Sussex (04/05/1940 to 29/01/2026). I’ve picked a few of his covers of the shelf including ‘Farthest Star’, ‘Approaching Oblivion’ and ‘100 Years of Science Fiction’ books 1 and 2. I had emailed Bob a while back to check the covers I had were his and he kindly replied to confirm they were and to say ‘The Farthest Star cover was the first I had published in 1976′ 

I got the news about the passing of Roger and Cecil as mentioned last week from Brian Sanders when I emailed him about a cover he painted. The book was ‘Fear’ by John Ives and Brian emailed back to say; “I certainly do remember and can add a little info as the figure on the cover of FEAR is me. Lizzie took the reference picture for me. I can still remember some of the book’s content as after the Suez invasion I was transferred into 45’s Intelligence section and went to Libya for desert training. In ‘Fear’ there is a perfect description of how to produce water in desert conditions which rang bells for me as it was something we’d been taught. At the time I thought the book would have made a good film – do read it.”

Random writer this week is Dan Greenburg (20/06/1936 to 18/12/2023) an American writer, humorist, and journalist. He wrote 73 novels published in 20 languages in 24 countries of which PAN published four which you can see HERE. ‘I Could Never Have Sex with Any Man Who Has So Little Regard for My Husband’ is a 1973 American sex comedy film directed by Robert McCarty based on Greenburg’s novel ‘Chewsday’

While talking to Brian Sanders recently he told me we lost another two artists last year, namely Roger Marriot Coleman and Cecil ‘Cec’ Vieweg. Roger passed away in Burpham near Arundel on the 1st June at the age of 94 while Cecil died in London in November. He was in his 80s and an In Memorium to him can be read HERE. They were both members of Artist Partners. I only met Roger once at a book fair in London but Cecil and I emailed regularly. I did suspect something was amiss when the communication last time was one way. Having put Cecil back in touch with his friend George Sharp there was once talk of a meet up of us all but it was not to be.

For the next few week I am going to include a random selection of titles and authors that I have to hand plus any other titles by the same authors I have on my shelves. If there are any requests for specific authors I’m always happy to try and meet them. Most of the dates are from Wikipedia so fingers crossed they are right.

Sir Francis Chichester (17/08/1901 to 26/07/1972) was the first man to sail single handedly around the world east to west, in a boat called Gypsy Moth IV in 1966. PAN published his story ‘Gipsy Moth Circles the World’ PAN also published two more of his books, an autobiography ‘The Lonely Sea and the Sky’ and ‘Along the Clipper Way’ about the 19th century clipper routes.

Sir Chay Blyth (14/5/1940) was the first man to single handedly sail around the world, west to east in 1971, in a boat called British Steel. He also rowed across the Atlantic in 1966 with fellow soldier John Ridgway. Blyth jointly told the story of this crossing in the book ‘A Fighting Chance’ while later he wrote of his round the world experience in ‘The Impossible Voyage’

I’m still trying to track down the numbered copies of ‘Extracts from a Diary’ by Hugh Walpole of which there were 100. I have number 3 which was given to PAN founder Alan Bott and up to last week I had managed to track down 29 but on doing a recent search found another 2 or possibly 3. Number 57 was sold in November on eBay while 27 was shown on a Reditt page by a poster who said they had two copies including Hugh Walpole’s own. There was a copy of Walpole’s ‘The Crystal Box’ on eBay up to Christmas for only £1,105. I might consider selling my copy for a knock down price of only £999.99 if anyone is interested?

I’m currently reading ‘Hugh Walpole’ by Rupert Hart Davis and there are several references to Alan Bott, founder of PAN Books and his wife Josephine. 

This weeks random author is Elmore John Leonard Jr. (11/10/1925 to 20/08/2013) an American novelist, short story author and screenwriter. His early novels from the1950s were mainly Westerns but he went on write crime fiction and suspense thrillers several of which have been adapted into films. Leonard wrote 64 novels of which PAN only published two that I have found. ‘Unknown Man No 89’ is a very common title but ’52 Pick-Up’ is more elusive. On the front of ‘Unknow Man No 89’ it states that it will be coming soon as an Alfred Hitchcock thriller, his 54th, but Hitchcock died before it could come to the silver screen.

I had an email from Bazeer at Pizgloria.com asking if I had spotted the above on eBay. I will admit I am a bit behind in my searches so I hadn’t noticed it but we both agreed our pockets weren’t deep enough for this display advert. Somebody’s were though as it went for the asking price of £260. I also noticed Doug  Redenius selling the below on Facebook. By the time I got around to asking what he might want for it, it had already been sold for $150. If it had still be available that one might have had me rattling the piggy bank. The ‘007 Night Spot’ at the London Hilton Hotel was a James Bond themed bar that open in 1968 and closed in the late 1970’s and the menu’s were made from genuine PAN book covers.

PAN always did have an eclectic catalogue of titles and one I particularly like is ‘The Book of the Sausage’ MD Ralph Vernon Hunt was at the book launch and he is well known for portraying James Bond on the directors covers, the spy who was not adverse to a bit of hide the sausage himself I’m led to believe.

While looking through old copies of ‘The Bookseller’ from 1991 I came across a reference to an obituary for Clarence Paget that was going to appear the next week. I have tracked it down and it can be viewed HERE. Paget was probably most well know for editing ‘The PAN Book of Horror Stories’ taking on the mantle after Herbert van Thal.

And finally the answers to last weeks quiz as if you needed them; 1) 1944 2) Alan Bott 3) Ten Stories by Rudyard Kipling 4) Mervyn Peake 5) Full colour cover artwork 6) Paris 7) A lot of pornography came from France 8) Ian Fleming 9) To sell a million copies 10) Ralph Vernon Hunt 11) Leslie Charteris 12) The PAN Book Of Horror Stories 13) Macmillan, Collins, Heinemann or Hodder & Stoughton 14) Great PAN 15) James Herriot 16) Edward Young 17) Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 18)1987 19) PAN Macmillan 20) Jackie Collins

While counting up my copies of X350 ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ with the Hawkey style cover I find I have 8 so far. There are still a few variations such as without and with price in UK shillings as well as cents, the 3rd printing text block with a 4th printing cover  plus the elusive Australian printing. The ones I have scanned are from the copies I have and will add others if I come across them but it’s not something I’m actively looking for at this moment in time unless someone out there has another variant they no longer want?

I was wondering how Gordon Young was as he is now over 100 and was ships boy on the ‘Laloun’ which brought the early PAN titles over from France where they were printed from 1947. I’m pleased to hear he is still on course for his 101th. It was while trying to find out how he was I came across a talk he gave to the Milford on Sea Historical Research Society. Thank you to them for letting put their YouTube video HERE or you can read this precis. “I joined the Royal Navy, signing up at 17 (1942), did my time on the Lower Deck serving in a Mine Layer as a very ‘ordinary ’seaman, doing sea time to qualify for Officer Training, commissioned as a Midshipman (1943) served on a LCT and was at the Normandy Landings in June 1944. Then had a spell ashore to qualify in Navigation and Watch Keeping and was posted to an Escort Carrier and spent most of the rest of the war in the Far East and was at Singapore for the surrender of the Japanese. By this time I had got my first stripe and was now Sub Lieut. W G Young RNVR. I was due to be ‘demobbed’ in the October of 1946 and spent the last three months at a Shore Base in Scotland where I met Lieut. Commander Saunders RNR and that is when my career with Pan started.”

While watching Mastermind on BBC TV my wife suggested I go on it answering questions on PAN Books. If I could take part in the celebrity show I don’t think it would be a struggle with general knowledge questions like ‘What animal goes woof woof?’ and ‘The word veg is short for ?’ I asked ChatGP to come up with 20 questions so see how you go, not really that taxing. Answers, as if you’ll need them, will appear next week.

1. In what year was Pan Books registered as a limited company?
2. Who was the former WWI flying ace and journalist who founded Pan Books?
3. What was the very first book published as a Pan paperback in June 1947?
4. Which famous artist and author designed the original Pan logo of the Greek god playing pipes?
5. Unlike its rival Penguin Books, which used plain color bands, what visual feature did Pan use to make its covers more commercially appealing?
6. Due to post-war paper shortages in the UK, where were the first Pan books printed before being shipped across the Channel?
7. When the first shipment of 10 titles arrived at Tilbury, why did customs officers initially suspect they were “dirty books”?
8. Which author’s James Bond series first appeared in UK paperback under the Pan imprint, starting with Casino Royale in 1955?
9. Established in 1962, what milestone did a Pan title have to reach to earn its author a “Golden Pan” trophy?
10. Which Pan Managing Director (and nephew of the founder) served as the cover model for James Bond on several 1960s editions?
11. Pan was the primary paperback publisher for the long-running “The Saint” series by which author?
12. In 1959, Pan launched a highly successful series of anthologies that ran for decades; what was it called?
13. For much of its early history, Pan was owned by a consortium of four major publishers. Can you name two of them?
14. In the 1950s and 60s, what prefix was added to the numbers of Pan’s slightly larger, more expensive paperback editions?
15. Which author, whose tales of a Yorkshire vet became a global phenomenon in the 1970s, was a mainstay of the Pan list?
16. In the 1950s, the Mervyn Peake logo was eventually replaced by a simpler version designed by whom? 
17. Which 1979 cult classic by Douglas Adams became one of Pan’s biggest hits of the era?
18. In what year did Pan Books cease being a consortium-owned company and become wholly owned by Macmillan?
19. In 1990, Pan officially merged with the trade division of its parent company to become which modern publisher?
20. Which author of “glitz and glamour” novels like Chances and Rock Star had joined Pan as a major bestseller?

Wishing all PAN Fans a Happy New Year and successful book hunting.

This weeks random author is Carol Beach York, (21/01/1928 to 26/04/2013) an American of 36 juvenile novels. She came from Chicago, Illinois and is best known for novels in the mystery/suspense genre, and for the Butterfield Square Series. If you know of any more than the five titles I have that were published by Piccolo please let me know. The covers are all by  Nancy Petley-Jones, daughter of the Canadian artist Llewellyn Petley-Jones. Nancy was born in 1953 and grew up in Richmond and graduated from Kingston University in 1976 with a degree in Graphic Design, specialising in illustration.

While sort out books I found I had two copies of ‘Heroes & Monsters’ by James Reeves with a cover by Sandy Nightingale. I wondered why two copies and then realised one was a Piccolo and the other a Piper, both children’s imprints from PAN. There are only two years between edition but the price has gone up from £2.50 to £3.50! Sandy is one half of Night & Day along with Gary Day-Ellison who was one time art director at PAN and has been mentioned in previous blogs especially regarding his involvement with Picador.

Wishing all PAN Fans the best of the season and for 2026

‘The Christmas Book’ by Enid Blyton was published in Piccolo twice, once in 1971 and again in 1972 with different covers but both by Gavin Rowe, It was originally published as a hardback by Macmillan in 1944 with a cover by Treyer Evans and later by Red Fox in 1991 with artwork by Annabel Spencleey and again in 1993 with a cover by Alan Fraser (Enid Blyton Society webpage)

I’ve been sorting out my PAN Piccolo titles and having mentioned ‘The Gruesome Book’ recently I’ve looked to see what others I have with covers by Ivan Lapper. So far I have found six which can been seen HERE. Ivan was born in Bilston in 1939 and attended Wolverhampton College of Art. He then went on to the Royal College of Art from 1959 to 1962. On leaving art college, Ivan worked as a freelance artist providing illustrations for many magazines, newspapers and books, such as The Radio Times and the Readers Digest. He also painted many images to show reconstructions of ancient ruined building in the care of the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works which is now know as English Heritage. I’ve got in touch with Ivan again and he replied to say “Dear Tim, Thank you for sending me copies of the Piccolo Covers I remember them well. I have copies of ‘The Gruesome Book’, it is one of my favourite covers the book contains some great illustrations. It was great to see the other covers. I enjoyed doing these covers and a great publisher to work for, this lead to other publishers wanting me to do horror covers for them. ‘The Haunted Houseful’ was based on a wonderful Victorian house opposite us in London the only one left. I will look to see if I can find more illustrations and will send you copies of them. Wishing you a very Happy Christmas and hope to be in touch in the New Year’ I’ll be posting as soon as I hear anything.

Not only is it this websites 26th birthday today but it is also Jane Austen’s 250th. PAN Published several of her titles with four being in the ‘Bestsellers of Literature’ series and six as ‘PAN Classics’ including a boxed set.

The TiKiT website for Pan Fans will be 26 years old tomorrow. I’d like to say thank you to everyone who comments and supports it as I then know it’s not just me reading it. This year there is no fancy banner as last year I got a snotty email telling me I had infringed copyright for what was shown as a royalty free image. The site is older than Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Reddit, YouTube, Gmail, Quora, Pinterest and Messenger to name but a few. Only beaten by Google for longevity as a top rated site, well that’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it!

This weeks random author is Weldon Hill (19/05/1918 to 22/02/1992) This was the pseudonym of William R. Scott  He entered the best-seller lists in the early 1950s with ‘Onionhead’ his first book published under the pen name of Weldon Hill. He had already had a successful career as an author of short stories and serials under his own name. The book is about a University of Oklahoma student who became a reluctant hero and drew on Scott’s background in the Coast Guard in World War II. PAN also published ‘The Long Dark Summer of George Adams’ and ‘Lonesome Traveller’ which is not to be confused with ‘Lonesome Traveller’ by Jack Kerouac, also published by PAN. I’ve included an Avon scan of  Hill’s ‘Lonesome Traveler’ as the covers are very similar but with the American spelling.

And finally, instead of me complaining about the ‘stack ’em high, sell ’em cheap’ dealers this time I’d like to say how pleased I have been with Thrift Books in the States lately. Not only have they provided a fast service with relatively cheap postage, usually cheaper than postage in this country, but their descriptions are way more accurate so I’m giving credit where credit is due, hopefully not famous last words! Below are four of the eight tag designs that come with books this time of year.