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.