This was not the blog it was going to be this week, that will appear next week as I’ve experienced one of those weird coincidences and all will be revealed then.

Following on from “The White Rajah” last week I contacted George Sharp again and included a scan of the back cover for the 1980 edition which clearly states it is by him. He replied “I don’t recall doing it, Tim, and it doesn’t look like my work.” I now have a copy of the similar 1977 edition and I think this looks like a photo and the cover attributed to George is painted from that. We’ll probably never know the answer.

This week I’m featuring the PAN Monsarrat covers from around 1980 which have the name sideways on. So far I have found ten with what might be another in the post. The list inside does include at least two more titles but I’ve not found then published in the same style. To see the ten click HERE. I’ve listed some as 1980(?) as I just can’t figure out an accurate date. I have also been in contact with Brian Sweet who painted the cover for “The Ship That Died Of Shame” He is going to see if he still has the original artwork.

Popping up to Kingston Upon Hull, ‘UK City of Culture 2017’ shortly to see if I can get some ‘kultcha’ to rub off on me. We were there last year and it was like a building site but we are told it is now very impressive. A bit disappointing when searching online for bookshops in the area but you never know.

Finally, the builders should finish knocking down walls etc. this week for my ‘library’ which unfortunately means the rest is up to me to put up a false ceiling, dividing wall etc. so maybe in six months …..!

Sorting through books again I found I had four different editions plus an image of another of “The White Rajah” by Nicholas Monsarrat. They can be see HERE. I’ve been trying to buy the 1977 edition but in spite of a photo of it being used by many sellers it is a ‘stock image’ and I now have three copies of the 1980 edition. What is puzzling is at first glance I thought the 1977 and 1980 editions had the same painting but on closer inspection there are many similarities but also many differences. The 1980 edition credits George Sharp as the artist and if I ever get a 1977 edition I see it that also says George. I contacted George to ask if he could recall this but he replied “Can’t help with the Monserrat. It wasn’t in my tenure” which is a bit odd as he is definitely named as the artist for the later edition. I’m hoping the 1977 edition I’ve got coming from France is the right one.

As a follow up to PAN’s 70th Birthday when they gave out six Golden Pan Awards here is Ken Follet, who was elsewhere on the night, receiving his from Anthony Forbes Watson (MD PAN) at a later event. Now I just need the photo Emma Donoghue has promised me when her award arrives in Canada.

Very pleased to now have the 1976 edition of “Midnight Plus One’ by Gavin Lyall. I had seen the original artwork at Colin Larkin’s house (unfortunately the paint is beginning to peel of the board) but could I find a copy of the book? Well at last I have so I’ve added it to Harry Hants page as he was the artist and it can be seen HERE.

….. and finally work starts on the doors to my library this week!

While searching for information on artists I came across a cover I’d not seen before for the novel “The Crock of Gold” by James Stephens. Now I’ve got a copy of that edition can I find the name of the artist, annoyingly no. I think PAN published four editions and the only artist I can name is Val Biro  for the 1953 cover. The four covers can be seen HERE I’ll keep looking for those elusive artists.

After putting up a page to show “The Dam Busters” covers last week I thought I’d see if I could find out any more about Brian F S Withams who’s painting appears on the 1978 edition. I don’t know if it was commissioned by PAN as Brian painted many aviation scenes. I found an address for him in Kingston Upon Thames and wrote to there but unfortunately I got a reply from the present occupant to say I had got the right address but he didn’t live there any more and they though he might have died.
I emailed the ‘Guild of Aviation Artists’ and Martin Perman kindly replied to say that Brian had been Vice Principal of the Guild but had died in November 2012. The only other information I could find was he was born in September 1932 in Maldon Essex and married Rose M Scott in 1956 in Surrey Northern.Look carefully to see it is signed ‘Withams’ middle bottom on the back cover.

……. and for those wondering if it’s worth collecting paperbacks here is an optimistic seller on amazon.ca. It says they’ve ‘Just Launched” as a seller but at these prices it may soon be more of a case of “sunk without trace” Even converted to £660 it sounds a tad too much!

Having hunted through all the copies of  “The Dam Busters” I can find that have not been stored away awaiting the completion of my ‘Library’ I make it a total of 13 different covers albeit some fairly subtle shown HERE I now need to track down more of the artists. I’m surprised at how many different ISBN’s this title has had and I also need to confirm a couple of dates from the latter editions. If anyone out there has any other variations or artist information I’d love it if you could let me know by just leaving a comment.

The builders working on our alterations are following their own schedule which unfortunately is not as fast as I would like but my wife actually let me order one section of the type of bookcase I want to use. These are fully adjustable in many different sizes but not that cheap so I need to get it right. The one I have gives me 16 feet if I double stack, only another 684 feet (approx.) to go! The garage roof has been coated in fibreglass, the three lanterns are in place, a small part of the foundations have been laid. They are supposedly coming to remove the old conservatory today and put up a new one on the old and new foundations. All the end wall of the garage will come out and bi-fold doors put in and that’s where my library will be – eventually!

This week not only have I had to try and keep the builders happy with a constant stream of tea and coffee (and talking of streams where do they go to relieve themselves I wonder as they not asked to use our toilet? Maybe I don’t want to know!) but we’ve also been given £2,000 towards our ‘Back The Track’ campaign, well that’s the Public Liability Insurance sorted so we have the skip, we have the medical help, now we just need the volunteers to clear the swamp of rubbish and do some pruning under the ‘Miner Island’ in Brownhills so walkers can get through.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to upload the blog this week as my internet company made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. I now have a fibre connection five times faster than I had with copper and I’m paying less per month. Always wary about changing something that has worked fine up to now but pleased to find it was a painless upgrade.

I’ll get back to PAN Books next week as the diary is looking fairly empty for once, just wondering what I might have forgotten to add to it?

Following on from Golden PAN awards last week the first winner was Paul Brickhill whose statue was given posthumously in 1964 for “The Dam Busters” This title reached a million sales in 1956 and PAN announced the fact by including a strapline across the bottom of editions from then shown HERE.

They also produced a special hardback edition which I was told was to coincide with the million sales and film premiere. I was also told it was limited to 100 copies and just for PAN employees. I first hear about this from a fellow PAN Fan, Derek Steer, followed up by a query from Garry Scarr in Canada. This was a long time ago and I’ve looked for a copy on and off for many years but without success.

Talking to Gordon Young he mentioned giving the flag of the ‘Laloun’ to the PAN archives but also his special hardback edition of “The Dam Busters” This made me look again and as luck would have it there was a copy on eBay for ‘Buy it Now’ or “Make an Offer” I didn’t hesitate and bought it straight away for £10 including postage. When it arrived I looked at the first page and it was given to a John Burt. On looking back at old emails Garry had said his was to an Ann Orford while Derek said there was no name in his. I’m presuming Gordon’s copy was his own, I need to check when he comes back from the holiday he needed to recover from all the excitement.

I talked to Trevor, son of John Burt, who was selling the book and he said his father never worked for PAN but for W H Smith and later became Advertising Director at “The Sunday Times” The other anomaly is that the film premiere was actually in 1955 but the special edition was not published until 18 months later.

Talking of Gordon Young, I’m not really jealous that he gets his name on the front page of every one of the 20 PAN 70th Anniversary titles but ……..!

Due to being away for part of last week and the other part being taken up fighting the rain coming into the garage since the builders took the old roof off I’ve not managed to add all the other editions of “The Dam Busters” that I wanted to do. Hopefully next week.

The photos on the page HERE are ones I took on the night PAN gave out six of their ‘Golden PAN Awards’ to authors for selling over a million copies of one title (apart from the one of Jackie Collins who sadly is no longer with us)

I also decided to push the boat out and buy all the 20 titles PAN reissued with the retro covers as part of their 70th. Online gave me two companies selling them at the best price I could find. I chose one as it offered ‘click and collect’ and the store was local. Unfortunately their website couldn’t cope with 20 items in the basket and crashed after 12! I then went to the other company which offered free postage and this time there was no problem.The amusing part was when the postman came to the door yesterday with my own box of parcels. The seller had only sent each one in a separate envelope or packet and on counting I find I only have 19 so hoping the last one arrives on Monday.I have to admit the 19 do look good in my vintage Bakelite bookcase, the EBCO design classic apparently. The only problem is as I said I’m one title short and unless it’s a very slim volume …..!

Disappointed in two respects regarding the “JAMES BOND AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY BY JOHN PEARSON (UNIQUE PROOF COPY PAN BOOKS)”  The first was that I didn’t ‘win’ it as I think James Bond fans must have deeper pockets than us poor PAN Fans and secondly it went for £109.07. If it was just one pound more it could have ended with 007!

As I’ve mentioned a few times lately PAN Books are celebrating their 70th Anniversary on the 5th September 2017. I’ve also been compiling the recollections of Gordon Young (picture left) who was First Mate on the ‘Laloun’ which in 1947 brought over the first titles published by PAN. This was because of paper shortages here in the UK but not so in France hence them being produced by Parisienne printers.

It was back in September that Gordon and I first made contact and I remember being really excited to get his email when we were staying in our camper on an apple farm near Cahir in Ireland. I wanted to email him straight back but I find I need to be cautious using my phone as the spell checker doesn’t always give me what I expect! When we did eventually communicate Gordon sent me several emails over the weeks, plus his own photos, telling the story of the ups and downs of transporting the books by sea. I’ve made a page which can be seen HERE (99.9% of the text is Gordon’s) I was really pleased to find that PAN has invited Gordon to their ‘birthday bash’ and that they are going to interview him for their aural archives.

Down in Cheltenham last week for a few days to pop in to see Paul Davies who was holding an excellent exhibition of his current work as a cartoonist. Paul also drew twelve PAN covers for Leslie Thomas titles in 1982, he hated them! I took a few with me that Paul kindly signed on the back and they can be seen HERE along with Paul’s cartoon of the bookseller who once was an all too familiar character. We had a long and interesting chat about many things we have in common.

While in Cheltenham called in to four bookshops (there was another one but listed under ‘rare books’ so decided probably a bit too posh) with Moss Books certainly winning for quantity and floor stacks but unfortunately meant I couldn’t get to see a lot of what was double stacked on the shelves behind the precarious piles

Northing to do with books but called in to the local steam railway station and managed to get a visit on to the footplate, quite ‘chuffed’ as it was only me and the drivers kids that were allowed up! It was a very hot day made even hotter standing next to the open firebox.
One publication I’d missed was the paperback edition of “Back From The Dead” by Johnny Mains from 2016 in which I’d like to say my website and I both get a mention but as I’m too modest ……! It uses the Les Edwards artwork that was intended for the defunct “PAN Book of Horror Scrapbook”

Finally a couple of updates in that I’ve found the last Paddington title ‘Paddington Goes Shopping’ and Alan Cracknell has kindly sent me some printers proofs of his non PAN book covers plus something we’ve not had for a while, a new entry in the ‘As Seen of TV’ section.

Next week is very close to the 70th anniversary of PAN Books so I’m going to publish Gordon Young’s recollections of being First Mate on the ‘Laloun’ the boat that brought over the first titles from France where they were printed.