This weeks look at all the different editions of one particular million selling title is ‘The Virgin Soldiers’ by Leslie Thomas first published by PAN in 1967 as M191. For those that might not know the ‘M’ referred to the price which was 5/- (G was 2/6, X was 3/6 etc) I recently picked up a Canadian edition overprinted 75c on the cover and signed by Thomas.

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Fellow PAN Fan Jeremy Birch, in one of his regular letters, sent me this small piece of card he found in his 1962 edition of ‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’ He wanted to know if I could throw any light on it but it was also a ‘mystery’ to me! I contacted David Morris at the ‘Collecting Christe’ website where he writes extremely well researched in depth articles on all things published relating to Christie including a recent one on PANs (thanks for the website mention) but he drew a blank. Anyone any idea or just something from someone’s imagination?

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While having a day out in Llandudno, transported on friend Kevin’s vintage double decker bus, I popped into the flea market in the town hall not expecting to find anything but came out with two instructional PANs. Since then I have been trying them out although rather unsuccessfully but they do illustrate the range of titles PAN has published over the years. The first is ‘Creative Poker’ from 1985 (unread) and the second ‘The Complete Magician’ from 1976 (well read) The weather in Llandudno was very pleasant and as can be seen in my photo the seats were just a stones throw from the beach.

I’ve recently been going through the list of recipients of the ‘Golden PAN Award’ and hope it is now reasonably up to date thanks to a list from PAN. It was mainly the most recent recipients that were missing plus a few dates and venues now added although I did have all the earlier authors included. What I didn’t know was that Jacqueline Graham and Sonny Mehta were the only non-author recipients of a Golden PAN Award. 

Now winners don’t get a second statue for another million seller but a certificate.

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I have several copies of ‘Booth’s Handbook of Cocktails and Mixed Drinks’ mostly signed, some with errata sheets stapled in and now I have a signed one with a different sticker on the front. It refers to an advertising tie in between Booth’s gin and Longleat which actually featured in a Pathe News reel.

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Having featured the Alan Hunter ‘George Gently’ titles last week I had tried to find a usable version of his signature but eventually ended up buying a signed book, namely ‘Fields of Heather’ which was rename ‘Gently in the Past’ in later publications to probably tie in with the TV series although not used. It was while scanning it I found a letter in it from Radio Norfolk saying this was a prize won in their ‘Platform Competition’ an opportunity for individuals to showcase their creative talents whether a budding poet, a stand-up comedian, or a musician participants could upload their work, including comedy, podcasts, poetry, fiction, and more, via BBC Upload apparently.