I don’t think I posted this blog when I wrote it back in February so waste not want not as they say. I’ve updated the pop-up shop details with what should be it next appearance.

Nearly missed an event I’ve not seen around here before, a pop-up second hand book shop. It was in an empty shop unit in Wolverhampton and it doesn’t say much for the centre managements optimism as to re-letting it when they say the organisers can have it again at the end of August. Managed to find a few books but nothing PAN related unfortunately.I do like to keep our antipodean PAN Fans interested so here’s one for you. Alan Marshall’s Australia which was published by PAN (Australia) Ltd in 1882 and printed and bound in Australia by New Century Press. It cost me $5 with an unbelievable postage charge of $2. It arrived as quickly as some where I’ve spent several times the cost of the book in postage to not get any better a service.

And finally just when I though I was Daphne du Maurier’d out in PAN book covers along comes another one namely ‘Rule Britannia’ from 1974. I’ve added it to the page of others which can be found HERE.

UPDATE Sorry to hear of the death of Adam West who’ll probably be best remembered for playing Batman. I thought PAN had a pop-up book of Batman to go along with the ones they did for other DC heroes such as Superman, Spider-Man and The Hulk. Unfortunately as all the pop-up books are stored away ready for relocation later in the year I can’t check right now.

With the sad news of Roger Moore’s death last week I started sorting out all the PAN titles he appeared on and after a very enthusiastic start was quite disappointed to only find seven! Click HERE to see them but if you can think of any more please let me know. I was sure there would be some ‘The Saint’ titles but haven’t found any with the Moore TV tie-in.

UPDATE Just found he’s on the cover of ‘Gold’ from 1974 so now there are eight.

I also heard from a friend who has numerous pieces of original PAN book cover artwork and is currently trying to get copies of the books to go with the artwork. There are not many to go and I thought it would be easy especially for ‘The Slave Stealer’ as it is often advertised. It was only while trying to find the 1974 version that I realised how many were actually  the 1971 edition. Quite a ‘raunchy’ cover for a PAN. I might have to read it to see if it mentions what colour the voyeurs shirt actually was.

Lastly I noticed there was a new magazine out called ‘Infinity‘ which includes an article on pulp science fiction by Neil Pettigrew, a name very much associated with the ‘Pulp and Paperback Fair’ in London, the next being October 29th. I was pleased to see six PAN covers amongst the examples.

I had no takers for last weeks question as to who it was holding their original artwork for a PAN title. Well the answer was Eric Tenney probably most well known for his animal studies. I couldn’t find an email address for him so actually wrote a letter and was pleasantly surprised to get a call from him saying he still had the artwork for ‘Shockwave’ by Colin Forbes and that he had also painted at least three more Forbes covers plus other assorted titles which I’ve scanned and added HERE Eric’s daughter Susan kindly sent me photos of what I think are printers proofs Eric has filed away and it is from these I selected the PAN titles but I do also like the Fontana Ngaio Marsh covers. I have noticed the ‘Shockwave’ cover in the photo is actually the Guild Publishing edition and the same artwork was used for this as well as the PAN hardback and paperback editions.

I’ve also included, for completeness, a cover by another wildlife artist, Peter Warner who sadly died in 2007. It seems strange that someone who specialise in cats did the cover for dog stories!

…. and finally after mentioning GEEK Comic Com last week I managed to speak to Colin Baker. Well I felt sorry for him as nobody else was but I think he’s getting old as I said I remembered when we last met in 1985 but he didn’t!

STOP PRESS Just got a lovely piece of original Eric Tenney artwork off eBay. It had the ‘Make me an offer option’ so I went for a silly price I thought would be rejected but was accepted, why didn’t I go lower! I used my usual ploy and told my wife I’ve bought it for her, now just waiting for it to arrive.

The question of the week is does anyone recognise this art work for a PAN book cover being held by the well known artist who painted it? I’ve bought a few more PAN books with covers by the same artist and if they’ve arrived by next week I’ll name names otherwise it will be the week after. The prize is just the pride/smugness you’ll feel for getting it right!

A while ago I included the original artwork I had for a Mills and Boon title by Joyce Dingwell. I was intrigued when looking at the dates in the book as to how many times it had been published by different publishers under different names. I know it’s not PAN but it’s fun to research these things which I’ve added HERE

I’ve also found ‘The Pan Book of Crosswords Book 7’ form the 60/70’s and now only number one of this series to be found. If only all sellers actually showed a picture of the book they were listing, I’ve given up sending back the ones I don’t want but the local charity shop does well out of it.

I’ve also added ‘The Sunday Times Calendar Cookbook’ which I could only find at silly prices but may have been using the wrong ISBN as it now appears to be available at a price I was happy to pay. I’ve also found yet another cover variant for a Jack Higgins namely ‘Storm Warning’ from 1977. It’s odd with prices as I was contacted by a fellow collector after a title he could only find on AbeBooks at over £100 pounds, I looked on Amazon and there were two copies for a couple of pounds. Like my ‘Times’ book I think we can all missearch every now and again.

… and lastly I spent Saturday at the GEEKS Comic-Con 2017 followed by the G Rail Show on Sunday all on our doorstep, why aren’t there any paperback book fairs?

Just back from a few days away in the camper in the middle of Warwick Racecourse. Unfortunately no racing while we were there as we’d have had a great view. While there I got an interesting email from artist Conor Masterson who had been given my details by PAN Books. It was in relation to the Virtú Exhibition at the Hunt Museum, Limmerick, Eire which includes one of his art installations.

Virtú, Friday 7th April – Sunday 21st May. Virtú is a curated exhibition that explores the ongoing relationship between The Hunt Museum and LSAD. The exhibition includes contemporary artists working in various disciplines and a collection of drawings from several collections including IMMA and The Hunt Museum. Join us on Friday 7th April, 3pm for an interactive discussion with the artists of Virtú, as they discuss their works and artistic processes.

I’ve emailed Conor for more details as to why 180 copies of “JAWS” Here is his reply;

I studied art and then photography in Dublin graduating in 1992. The Jaws project was something I started in 1996 and it is called 180 Books
I was originally drawn to the typeface and the iconic cover when I saw a few copies on a shelf of a charity shop in and was tickled to find a few together with the same pattern repeated. I bought three copies in that shop in 1996 and two more the same day in other charity shops. A few weeks later I was looking at the copies on my shelf and noticed how each one was subtly different, each reader had marked the covers with signs of their own individual touch, their tell tale impressions of how they read a book. Some were gentle, some rough, the spine was broken in a variety of ways or not at all. I realised that, to me, they represented us all. This pop culture phenomenon that had sold millions of copies in the 1970’s had been read by millions of purchasers and millions more who had borrowed or bought these used copies. When we see them in person and we stand back they appear identical but as we move closer the fine subtle details reveal themselves. As we get very close those differences are extraordinary. Each copy, in this collection, is the same edition but is so obviously unique when laid side by side. I feel it is an interesting metaphor for the human condition, we are all the same and yet completely unique. Conor Masterson Margate 2017

While in Warwick I picked up a couple books which were not PAN but slightly related. “Murder Racquet” by Hitchcock with a cover by Les Edwards who did the cover for “The Scrapbook of PAN Horror Stories” by Johnny Mains currently on hold. The other was “The Secret Servant” by Gavin Lyall, a PAN Books stalwart, with a cover I’ve not seen before from Raymond Hawkey, a name familiar to all PAN/Bond fans.

I liked the photo of Gavin in this book as it shows him with a cat. Currently having 5 cats with us I’m trying to remember when we only had one!

I recently bought an original artwork by L Houghton for a Mills and Book cover in their ‘Doctors’ series. Interestingly it’s not quite the same as the book cover in that the nurse is the same one but the original doctor is removed and replaced by another on the other side but they don’t seem to have taken into account the green curtains!

L Houghton is a bit of a mystery. Steve Holland on his Bear Alley site thinks he could be Laurence John C Houghton so I’ve emailed a family member who now lives in Australia but was born just down the road from where I am now. I’ll let you know if I have a reply.

The only PAN cover I can find that he painted is the “The Drowning Pool’ by John Ross Macdonald from 1955.

If anyone has any more information on this artist we’d love to hear about it.

I also got an email from Anna who runs the website that ‘m sure all Angelique fans have visited. She used the photo of my Angelique film poster on her site but drew my attention to the same poster but looking slightly different. Spot the change HERE I thought it must be for a country where censorship was heavier than the UK back in the 60’s and on checking I found it was being sold by Ashgrove Auctioneers in Portarlington, County Laois which does explain the cover up. It was only years later I found that the film ‘La Ronde’ was not really 45 minutes long, that was just how much was left by the censors when I saw it in Dublin in 1966!

STOP PRESS Had a reply from Australia regarding L Houghton but unfortunately Kay doesn’t know what her very distant relative did for a living.