PAN Fans Club

Let's talk about PAN paperbacks, the blog for those that do judge a book by its cover. Main site is at www.tikit.net or www.panfans.club

PAN Fans Club - Let's talk about PAN paperbacks, the blog for those that do judge a book by its cover. Main site is at www.tikit.net or www.panfans.club

Category Archives: PAN Books

Alun Hood?

Having just picked up a copy of the 1978 title ‘Nature On Your Side’ describing how to use natural remedies to get rid of pests I looked on the back and saw the cover was by Alun Hood. The name was vaguely familiar and I have tracked down another two covers he did for PAN. He also did numerous covers for other publishers in the 70’s and 80’s

The one thing I can’t find is any information about him. Can anyone help?

I recently had a comment posted by Gareth Powell regarding Ralph Vernon-Hunt who I’ve mentioned before in a previous blog. Gareth knew Ralph and wrote “Ah yes, I remember him well. I first met him in 1956 when I was working with Smith Trade News. He was a total charmer. He introduced me to Paul Hamlyn and treated me as if we were equals. We were nothing of the sort. I was then a trade journalist but it mattered not. I have always had a soft spot for Ralph Vernon Hunt and remember meeting him for the last time in, of all places Mumbai which was Bombay then” I have since tracked down his obituary  and will have more on him next week but as a taster I was interested to see he worked in Hudson’s Bookshop in Birmingham. This was a proper bookshop and when I was aspiring to be a teacher(!) it was the place you went to for all your text books.Hudsons

George Sharp 2

Name1Still visiting hospital taking mother-in-law but things not quite as an ’emergency’ as they were, now downgraded to ‘urgent’ which means I’ve been able to add a few more bits and pieces to George’s page. This is a representative selection of work he did not only for PAN but other publishers. I was really pleased to be able to meet up with him at his flat in London and I was even more pleased when he generously gave me the three pieces of original artwork shown on the page. I am having them framed at the moment and they will take pride of place on my wall along with ‘The Chequer Board’ I already had. They were not originally signed but they are now. If I was to pick a favourite it would be ‘On The Beach’ but surprisingly, and George agreed, it is better as book cover size with the colours being more vibrant and intense, probably a quirk of the printing process.On The Beach C

I contacted George regarding the credit anomoly on the Herriot covers and he replied “Rob McCaig assisted me on the project. It is his work only in part for we both worked on each of 11 paintings completed over a period of little more than a week in order to re-jacket  the entire backlist in order to coincide with the publishing of James Herriott’s final hardback. Somebody at Pan removed my credit”

 

Val Biro 1921 to 2014

VBBooksI have only just learnt that the prolific artist Val Biro passed away on the 4th July this year. It was a pleasure to meet up with him a couple of years ago at his studio in Bosham, West Sussex. Balint Stephen Biro was born on the 6th October 1921 in Budapest and studied at the Jaschnick School of Art before coming to the UK as war loomed. He continued to study at the  Central School of Art in London from where he went on to painting numerous covers for PAN in the 1950’s

George Sharp Part 1

Round The Bend

George Sharp with the original artwork for ‘Round The Bend’ by Nevil Shute

Unfortunately, due to elderly in-law problems involving several visits to doctors and the hospital this week I’ve not managed to finish the page for George Sharp as I would have liked. I will try this week but click on the link to see it so far.

One anomaly is that the James Herriot covers from around the 80’s state they are by George Sharp and Robb McCaig and the page shows three examples of the original artwork that George has. In the boxed set of 2012 using the same artwork the only credit is given to Robb McCaig, I think I may need to contact George regarding this.

I did find time to scan in another 24 Barbara Cartland covers. That was a very long session well into the night but if you need something to send you to sleep it certainly helps.

Derek (Arthur) Stowe

ds6A few months back Derek Stowe contacted me to see if I was interested in having some details of his life and work, I jumped at the chance.

Since then it’s been trying to track down examples of Derek’s covers and with the last one on the list from the Bodleian Library this week I can now launch his pages. As with other artists I include not just his work for PAN but for other publishers as well to give a wider portfolio of work. You can also find him on the Artists link on the main site.

     

Leslie Thomas 1931 to 2014

AutographFollowing an email from Jem I was reminded that we had not only lost Sam Peffer this year but another  PAN stalwarts , Leslie Thomas, winner of a Golden PAN Award for selling over a million copies of ‘The Virgin Soldiers’ MontageBack in May  I started to put together a page of covers and had not realised how many variations there are on his dozen or so titles published by PAN. So while I track them down I’ve adding a slide show of the 11 comic covers from the 80’s. As usual if you know of any more that I’ve missed please let me know.

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PS Silly prices time on eBay UK again where a copy of the Domino letter from ‘Thunderball’ sold for £321.11 after 26 bids (and no free postage!)

Must Stop Buying Domain Names!

Already having 11 domain names and being constantly bombarded with opportunities to buy new domain name extensions I can usually restrain myself from purchasing more but I have recently succumbed and bought two. One I couldn’t resist as it is simply my forename, then a full stop and then my surname (that and nothing else even though people find it hard to accept) ready for my world domination scheme. The second is that us PAN Book collectors/appreciators are often called PAN Fans and imply we are in a sort of club so when the extension club came up I went for panfans.club which is eventually working as a redirect.Image4I mentioned last week being so near to getting the last title of the 2,391 know ones PAN published under their eclectic numbering system. Well I do have the one that looks just like it apart from not having the magic number X705 in the top right hand corner (it’s a 4th printing) I think I’ll have to count this as a half!Book3

So Near Yet So Far

I’m sure I must be like a lot of people in watching for different items on eBay which 99.9% of the time gives very strange results but when it came up with ‘PAN Junior Crosswords Book 3’ I thought I’d found my holy grail. On clicking on the item it WAS the last title I needed BUT it wasn’t X705. It turned out to the later edition with the same cover but an ISBN. At 50p I bid on it anyway and I’ll use it as a place holder on the shelves until that day when I can actually replace it with the real thing.BurgessGoing back to a past blog where I mentioned the amazing prices asked for copies of “Casino Royale” I see the one that has just ended on eBay failed to get any bids. This might be down to it being a second printing and with a starting price of £249.99 but then again on the up side they did offer free p&p. Another copy with 18 bids just went for £36.10 but didn’t say which printing while there is a second printing ‘buy it now’ on offer for £74.32.

Happy 30th Birthday

If you are reading this it means that the scheduled publication has worked. The reason I’ve done it is that I am currently on holiday exploring the coast of Dorset for a couple of weeks. On the day this is be published I  should be at the premises of Henry Ling Printers, Dorchester, where I’m booked in for a guided tour with the Chairman. The PAN connection is that they printed the ‘Invisible Ink Puzzle Books’ which turned out to be a bit of a nightmare but Tony Kennett has promised to tell all. The reason I put ‘Happy Birthday’ as the title is that it is actually 30 years to the day yesterday, June 8th 1984, that the first invisible ink puzzle book ‘Ball Games’ by Tom Case was published.

After seeing a signed copy of Johnnie Johnsons ‘Full Circle’ with dust jacket appear on eBay several times I was waited until the price dropped again on relisting but someone bid on it. I wasn’t going to bother until I saw the name in the inscription and then decided I had to have – and pretend it was for me!

Space Flight & Flight & Flight

Whilst once again flicking through websites showing pages of book covers I spotted a familiar one but with an unfamiliar name at the top.
I already had the Piccolo Factbook version of ‘Space Flight’ along with the Rand McNally one from the States but I’d not come across Willowisp Press Inc  (St. Petersburg Florida USA) before. The dates are respectively 1981, 1982 and 1984 and all printed by Graficas Reunidas SA, Madrid, Spain.
 Space Flight Factbook