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.