Thanks to Rog Peyton who spotted a mistake, not one of mine I hasten to add, but in the Signal toothpaste flyer. It listed PAN books due to be published in June but got the numbers wrong. They are listed as ‘G’ but in fact were actually ‘X’ I have checked with Elly, the PAN archivist, and she confirms they have no listing for any title with a number past G717. I see that elusive X705 is in there as G718! In the catalogue for June 1967 they have the numbers right.
I caught a trailer for Alan Carr’s TV programme ‘Chatty Man’ I’ve not been watching it but something caught my eye. There was a clip of an adult Alan Carr next to someone playing him as a teenager and it was the book he was reading. It is the 13th printing of ‘Dumb Witness’ from 1978 with an ISBN. PAN also published ‘Dumb Witness’ as number 82.
Last year we bought annual passes to the gold award winning Black Country Living Museum and realised they were nearly up so we fitted in a visit. We were glad we did as last month the reconstructed library opened. The historic Woodside Library from Dudley has been rebuilt brick-by-brick at the Black Country Living Museum. It opened on March 18th, 2026 as a centerpiece of its new 1940s-1960s high street development. Originally built in 1894, the restored library features over 6,500 books chosen from the 60,000 donated and reflects post-war community life and I was wondering if they might have something …….. and I wasn’t disappointed.
