As mentioned previously, when talking about dust jackets, I referred to “The Fountain Of Life” by A G Prys-Jones. I have three versions of this, all dated 1949, but one is the hardback version and two paperback versions. One of the paperback versions is the same size any other PAN paperback, 112mm by 178mm, but the other is what I would call over-sized being 117mm by 182mm and having a dust jacket and a plain cover inside. It was only while showing someone these they said wasn’t the larger paperback the same size as the hardbacks text pages? On measuring them I found they were right so all I can think is that PAN had a lot of the hardback sized pages on which they just put a dust jacket, looking the same as the ‘normal’ paperback version, making a paperback rather than the red cloth hardback.

Fellow Panfan Dave Browining wrote “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service 1965 6th printing text block…. with a 1972 Still Life wrap…. so 7 years between print and sale. Don’t suppose you know who at Pan was responsible for these ‘still life’ covers? I really like them, often wonder who the models in the little B/W photographs were”
This made me double check my copy of “The Pan Book Of Card Games” dated 1960 but with an extra page in the back with an address for a website set up in 1996 so this makes 36 years. Can anyone beat that?

As for Dave’s question regarding the Fleming ‘still life’ covers I’ve never found any definitive answer as to who might have been responsible. Some say it was the photographer (who?) others the PAN art director at the time (possibly David Larkin) As for the girls in the photos of this series I often wondered if they were just pictures of celebrities of the time as I’m sure the one on FRWL is Sophia Loren and my wife reckons it’s Twiggy on Goldfinger. Can anyone provide any more information?

Finally while mentioning the ‘still life’ series my 6th printing from 1972 of Octopussy has a bound in tear off card for the Prudential. I’m often finding lose cards for the Prudential, Co-op or Creative Writing courses but this is only the second one I have with it actually attached. Again does anyone know any more?