Fellow PAN Fan Jeremy Birch sent me an envelope he found in his M207 copy of ‘Far From The Madding Crowd’ It contains several black and white photos of scenes around Dorchester and annotated on the back with the references to passages in the book. Jeremy is happy to give them to the Hardy Society and as he doesn’t use email he asked me. I contacted them and by return I got a message to say could they  would be very interested so I have sent them on. I have put a couple of examples on the M207 page.

Having mentioned the PAN logo being in different coloured rectangles last week made me take another look and I was really surprised to see how many variants there were on the spines in the earlier editions before they settled down to using yellow.

These are just a few of the more distinct colours as some may be faded and there are even more on the dust jackets with one being a pink logo in a green box.

Sorting out Dick Francis titles I found I had three editions of ‘The Sport of Queens’ and laying them in a row I think the covers got progressively worse as the price increased from 70p to £4.99. Richard Stanley Francis (31/010/1920 – 14/02/2010) was a British steeplechase jockey and crime writer whose novels centre on horse racing in England. More than forty of these novels became international best-sellers.

Whilst hobbling around Whitby with the family last week I finished reading ‘On The House’ by Simon Hogggart which I enjoyed. With it being from 1982 I had actually heard of a lot of the MPs and could bring faces to mind, something I don’t think I can say for MPs now. There was one piece that reminded me of a holiday we had in South Africa (see scan above) It was a package tour and it was only halfway through we found out who David and Gillian were. Turns out they were Lord and Lady Waddington (the red trousers should have been a clue). He held many roles including Home Secretary under Margaret Thatcher and had visited South Africa many times but not as a real tourist. Apparently, unbeknown to us, we had all been vetted and he had to ‘report in’ every night but it also meant we got a few extra meals and excursions thrown in for nothing, Mind you he did fly first class, something not extended to the rest of us. I’ve picked up a few more of Hoggart’s titles to go on the ‘to read’ pile although only one is another PAN.

For those completest amongst us you have to be careful with PAN 175 ‘Forlorn River’ by Zane Grey. There are at least two printings, a first from 1951 and a reprint from 1953 with identical covers apart from a couple of things. There is message about writing to PAN for news on the back of the 1951 edition. and more interestingly, the PAN logo on the spine is in the usual yellow box on the 1953 edition but in red on the 1951. The original artwork by John Pollack appears to be in a completely different colour scheme.

I have several sets of Douglas Adam’s ‘The Hitchhikers’s Guide To The Galaxy’ but I will confess I’d not really looked at the covers of some of the later ones so I decided to remedy that. When I pulled out the 2016 edition of ‘The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe’ I couldn’t believe how bad it was, even if it is supposed to look like a menu cover, compared to the other four but that might be just me, I’ve scanned them all in just because I have them.

This week I am looking at three Paul Gallico titles published more than once by PAN. The first is ‘The Poseidon Affair’ from 1971 and as a film tie-in in1973 plus I’ve thrown in ‘Beyond the Poseidon Adventure’ from 1979

‘Matilda’ was published in 1972 and again as a film tie-in in 1978.  I never found the first edition particularly attractive but somehow PAN managed to make the later even more unappealing. Alright, the kangaroo is sort of cute, but the box with the names of stars of the film doesn’t really do anything for it in my opinion and I’m not sure about the choice of font, moan over,

The third Gallico title is ‘The Zoo Gang’ of which both my editions are from 1973 but one is a second printing and features a cover from the ATV television series of which I have no memory even though it claimed to be an “exciting series” with “action all the way” to quote the blurbs.

While trying to find a ‘free’ version of the ‘The Railway Children’ to show the grandchildren as they had visited the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway last week, where it was filmed, I came across the trailer. I was surprised to see it featured the PAN edition of the book in a strange kaleidoscopic swirl which I’ve added to a couple of pages. (You can watch it for free on Dailymotion)

While reading ‘The Electric Cotillion’ by Don Asher from 1972, one of the two of his books published by PAN, I keep looking at the cover trying to decipher the signature. Can anyone recognise it? The other book by Asher is ‘The Piano Sport’ from 1970

I bought a Picador copy of ‘Kristin Lavransdatter’ by Sigrid Undset because I liked the cover, Sigrid Undset (20/05/1882 – 10/06/1949) was a Danish-born Norwegian novelist. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928. This is a compilation of her trilogy comprising ‘Kransen’, ‘Hisfrue’ and ‘Korset’ The cover is by Geoff Taylor whom I have communicated with in the past and at one time lived about 2 miles from me although we didn’t know that at the time. If you want to read it be warned you need strong wrists as this is a book of nearly 1,000 pages!

If anyone is around Wolverhampton the pop up bookshop is back now for a couple of weeks and they are having a summer clearance sale where all books are half listed price. It is in the Community Hub on the ground floor of the Mander Centre. I don’t know if I’ll manage it this time but I am down to just using a stick when out and about so possibly sometime in the last week. The photo is of getting ready which requires a lot of hard work so if you do go because of this post please mention to them you saw it here as I do try to give them a plug every time.

Fellow PAN Fan Gavin Scott,  novelist, broadcaster and writer of the Emmy-winning mini-series “Mists of Avalon”, Dreamworks’ “Small Soldiers”, Working Title’s “The Borrowers” and Sci Fi’s “Legends of Earthsea”, has updated his page mentioning his love of PAN books.  I’m not sure if the part where he mentions Duncan Forrester possibly reading a PAN book was down to me as I did suggest this at one time.

Every now and again I actually read one of the books in my PAN collection which comes as a surprise to me as well. This time it was ‘Cause of Death’ by Frank Smyth. of which I have two editions both dated 1982 and identical apart from cover and price of which the latter is the only way I can really tell which came first. Once again I am left wondering why PAN felt the need to change the cover in so short a space of time and why a mention of an foreword by Colin Wilson got dropped? I actually prefer the simpler earlier one. I’ve also included ‘I’m Jack’ as it is the only other PAN title bearing the name of Frank Smyth I can find.

I’ve not got desperate enough to watch ‘Shark! Celebrity Infested Waters’ on ITV but I did like the way they had based the introductory title on the book/poster. Just a pity they didn’t used the ‘teeth’ font Ken Hatherley designed for the PAN edition of ‘Jaws

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.

If you are looking to acquire 553 original artworks for PAN book covers they are currently up for offers on eBay. They form the basis for the book ‘Cover Me’ by Colin Larkin and as much as I would love to bid the premium bonds have let me down again.

I’ve added a few more covers related to the ‘Jeremy James’ books and I have also been in contact with Fred Apps who is looking to see if he has any of his original artwork. His Piccolo covers was based on the covers he did for Dent but I’m wondering why PAN felt the need to add eyes and a mouth to the train? The German, French and Turkish editions all use the artwork by Axel Scheffler. I feel there must be a few more edition out there so they’ll get added to my ‘to look out for’ list.

Having found a printer’s proof for X259 ‘The Exile’ by Pearl Buck that I had forgotten about, I have now added it to the page along with the original artwork by David Tayler.

I recently picked up a couple of pieces of original artwork and this week I’m including G140 ‘Jambo!’ by Olle Strandberg with a cover also by David Tayler. I have tried to get David back on Wikipedia but they keep saying there is copyright material. This is the content of the article without formatting and I’m blowed if I can see what they don’t like.
David Graham Tayler (21 February 1921 – 2 June 1985) was a British commercial artist who specialised in book cover art in the 1950s and 60s. He was best known for his careful research and detailed accuracy in depiction. Tayler was born in Lancaster, the son of Edward Douglas Tayler, organist and professor of music. The family moved to New Zealand in 1926 when E.D. Tayler took up the appointment of Supervisor & Director of Vocal Music in Schools. In 1931 E.D. Tayler resigned this position. In 1932 he was at the University of California, Berkeley. After E.D. Tayler’s untimely death at Berkeley in August 1932, Tayler returned to England with his mother. In 1937 he enrolled at Wimbledon School of Art where, by 1940, he completed a Teaching Diploma. When war broke out in 1939, Tayler joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve and served in the Home Guard. In 1940 he was called up into the RAF. In 1946 he enrolled in the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, and was awarded a diploma in 1948. In 1955, while teaching at Leatherhead County Secondary School, now Therfield School, Tayler illustrated his first book covers. Tayler illustrated covers for Corgi, Archer, Arrow, Mayflower Press & Pan books, as well as hardback publishers such as Harrap, Rich & Cowan, and Herbert Jenkins. The subjects were varied and included Westerns, War (WWII and former wars), Biography, Crime, Travel, Natural History, Romance. Tayler signed his pictures with TAYLER in capitals, usually horizontally but occasionally vertically. Comment by Pat Owen, Pan cover artist: “There were some artists who could do anything, and they were obviously given anything to do. There were some who were better at some things than others but, beyond that it was really who was available, who could do something quickly. David Tayler, for example, I’m pretty sure I am right in saying he needed about a month, so what he was given had to be carefully sorted out and we wouldn’t give him what we thought at the time was a trashy old book to do. He was given books worthy of his ability” The end of the 1960s, however, brought about a change in book cover illustration. Photographs were increasingly used and a style of painting which was less detailed and therefore more quickly completed became popular. Tayler was not the only artist to find he could no longer make a living through cover art. Tayler continued to paint while doing other work. He undertook commissions and exhibited his work locally. In 1952 he married Delma Savell, a former pupil of his at Leatherhead County Secondary School. They lived in Dorking, Surrey, and had one child, John Mark. In 1979, aged 58, Tayler suffered a stroke. He died on 2 June 1985. His residence at that time was the Gower Peninsula near Llanrhidian.
Tayler painted at least 77 signed covers for PAN and several more without a signature. There are 45 of his paintings in the sale on eBay.

I had not heard of the Jeremy James books by David Henry Wilson until I picked up a few published by PAN under their Piccolo imprint and later as Pipers. Considering they seemed to have had a longish publishing history, still being in print in several languages, I’m not sure how I missed them. The earlier editions had covers by Fred Apps followed by Ann Johns and then Axel Scheffler. David Wilson also wrote other titles published by PAN and I’ve Included a few of those on the page. What is annoying is that a lot of sellers use ‘stock’ images for two of the Jeremey James titles and I would love to know if these actually exist?
TO BE CONTINUE …….

I saw a couple of Leslie Thomas covers I hadn’t got on eBay at a silly price but with ‘make an offer’ available. I made what I thought was actually a very generous offer but which was turned down straight away. I replied to say what I was offering was as high as I was going to go, take it or leave it. The seller when very quiet but just before the end date, with no other bids, they accepted my offer. I still think I paid too much but there it is.

I put a page of covers for ‘The Island of Doctor Moreau’ by H G Wells together a while ago and was convinced I’d posted it as part of a blog but when I went to recheck it I couldn’t find it. Maybe I intended to post it but then got distracted. Apologies if I have but here are the different versions of the PAN edition.

Recently I bought a bundle of Leslie Thomas titles for just one of them so you can imagine how miffed I was to get a message from the seller to say he had found them all apart from one, the only one I really wanted! I settled for a full refund as I had all the others but if anyone can help with a copy or a scan of the back cover and date I would be very grateful. I have the front cover from the sellers listing and have added it to the page for X700 ‘This Time Next Week’

It’s always nice to come across a ‘new’ series and this time it was for ‘The Magic Road’ by Kevin Scally from 1984 of which there are four titles as far as I can ascertain. They are all hardback and a larger size and designed to be easily navigated by young children but I’m not so sure about that myself. I’ll get my 5 year old nephew to test them out next time he comes to visit. I’m still tempted to scan the whole book in and make the arrows ‘hot spots’ so you can do it online.

It’s getting easier to sit at the computer since the hip operation but not as easy to leap up and get a book or two from the library shelves when I need to scan them in. Hopefully I’ll be back to it soon. Oddly I was rung up last week by a district nurse to make an appointment to have my surgical clips removed. I later realised the date she had given me was five days too soon so I rang back on the same number to discover they had no record of me on their system and no date which was supposedly in their diary and in fact no referral to them from the hospital at all. I await to see what happens.

The blog is on hold while I recover from a week in hospital. Last Monday, when I was out on our disused railway track I, managed to get the lace of one boot wrapped around the hooks of the other resulting in me come to a very abrupt halt. When I tried to stand up I realised something was amiss but this time I’ve only had half a hip replacement and not a full one like last time, What is it with me, hips and art exhibitions in Wiltshire? Last time is was in Salisbury when at least I got to see the Richard Chopping exhibition whereas yesterday I should have been in Westbury for the Tom Stimpson exhibition. Hopefully normal service will be resume next week.