With just two identifiable David Tayler roughs for PAN to go, this week we have G141 ‘The Reluctant Legionnaire’ by Michael Alexander. Michael Charles Alexander was born in London (20/11/1920 to 19/12/2004) the son of Rear-Admiral Charles Otway Alexander and the Dutch patrician Antonia van Geermans, making him half English and half Dutch. He was educated at Stowe and then Sandhurst. He distinguished himself during the Second World War but was captured behind enemy lines and sent to Colditz Castle. After the war Alexander pursued a varied career in publishing and business and authored several notable works including GP46 ‘The Privileged Nightmare’ jointly with Giles Romilly.

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To tie in with the launch of the film of Mario Puzo’s book ‘The Godfather’ in 1970 PAN informed book sellers all about what display materials were available. This is a page from ‘The Bookseller’ magazine

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Ralph Holmes Vernon Hunt was the nephew of Alan Bott and joined Pan Books as Sales Director, working his way up to Managing Director in 1969. He had previously worked at Hudson’s book shop in Birmingham and I had an email from blog reader Alun who worked there from 1973 to 1985 and remembers Vernon Hunt and said he was a nice chap. What always amuses me though is that Vernon Hunt was used as the model for James Bond and John Hadfield referred to him as a ‘virile adventurer of the book trade’ as in this letter! John Charles Heywood Hadfield (16/06/1907 to 10/10/1999) was an English writer and publisher, best known for his 1959 comic novel ‘Love on a Branch Line’

Looking at him in the photo below, third from left, I can’t really see it myself.

This week we have two roughs by David Tayler neither of which look like the finished cover for M33 ‘Annie’s Captain’ by Kathryn Hulme. PAN also published G302 ‘The Wild Place’ and G291 ‘The Nun’s Story’ by Hulme. ‘The Nun’s Story’ was made into a film in 1959 starring Audrey Hepburn and was the inspiration for the early PAN editions cover artwork by Sam ‘PEFF’ Peffer. Kathryn Cavarly Hulme (6/1/1900 60 25/8/1981) was an American novelist and memoirist.

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While looking at my C S Forester covers I’m left wondering why PAN felt the need to change the one for ‘Plain Murder’ just a few years apart. As far as I can tell it wasn’t because there was going to be a complete relaunch of Forester titles with a new look as there seems to be only a couple and not really amongst my favourites. I think, if I had to chose, I prefer the earlier ‘Plain Murder’ from 1970

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I’m often asked about the eclectic numbering system for PAN books and I explain, as I will now, it is all down to price as in this table I made. If anyone knows of any I missed please send me a message. If you are a completest then you need to watch our for examples as in the above which are identical apart from the 4th printing went up 6 pence from the 3rd. Just a letter on the spine was kept to show price when PAN switched to SBNs but dropped with the introduction of ISBNs.

This weeks David Tayler rough is for G168 ‘Zoo Quest to Guiana’ by David Attenborough. I was going to include this in the week of his 100th birthday but somehow it got missed. The rough is not that different from the finished cover apart from the background but interestingly the original artwork and printers proof differs from the final cover in not having the yellow flash.

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After featuring Jooce Garrett last week he sent me a photo of Brian Sanders which he thought might have been used for the cover of ‘Dealer’s Move’ I sent it to Brian and he emailed back to say “Gosh I don’t even remember modelling for that.  I Certainly don’t have the original and am sure that Lizzie would not have allowed me to keep it had it been given to me. Did any of the Krays ever have moustache’s? I look more like a cross between Hitler and Stalin than one of the lads. The things we used to do for friends!” It’s possible that PAN didn’t actually publish a copy of this book although Macmillan did.

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Having mentioned ‘Page and Screen’ by John Mabey I was looking through and picking out PAN editions to check against my copies. It was when I got to the TV tie-in for ‘Wings’ by Barry Thomas I noticed something I hadn’t previously. There were two titles and I had just put them side by side on the shell without noticing only one was published by PAN! The other was published by the BBC, the dilemma is now do I leave it there, probably not.