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.