After mentioned the recently published paperback edition of ‘Cover Me’ having an update which now includes a photo of Kitty Peffer posing for the cover I was really pleased to get a copy so I could check it out thanks to author Colin Larkin. Plus always nice to have a plug for the site.

By one of those strange coincidences I got an email from Kathy, Sam’s Great Niece’ the same day to say they had been having a tidy out and found the candlewick bedspread, as on the cover and photo, being used to cover some furniture and was I interested? I am now the proud owner of said bedspread and will pick it up next time I am down that way.

I still look out for Piccolo covers, PAN’s children’s imprint, as they are often by well know artists and this time it is a couple both called Alan namely Alan Cracknell (‘Rainy Day Ideas’ ) and Alan Lee (‘Bushrangers Bold’) the latter probably as the art director of ‘Lord of the Rings’, ‘The Hobbit’ etc.

Having rescanned a cover of ‘Gretta’ by Erskine Caldwell for a recent blog I though it was a good opportunity to scan the others numbered G219. I am often left wondering why PAN felt the need to change the artwork so often, and not just a reprinting? I can understand for a film tie in or possibly a repricing which would need a new code letter (G as in G219 meant it was 2/6) but this is four covers over six years. Two of the covers are by Hans Helweg for which he got paid £42 (1960) and £50 16s (1965)

I recently featured several ‘Hornblower’ titles by C. S. Forester so I thought I’d put a few more of the later ones on a page HERE. I’m not sure why PAN felt the need to change the covers so often but I’m happy as it makes the search for them more interesting.

After struggling to see what was on the several hundred negatives Kathy Ford kindly gave me by holding them up to the light I bit the bullet and bought a negative/slide digitiser. It was not the cheapest of items but as the negatives were in 120 format with sizes from 6×6 to 6×9 there wasn’t too much choice. It will also mean it will be a lot easier to digitize all the hundreds of 35mm slides we took in the 70’s when you had a family get together in the dark to subject them to what seemed like a never end show. The negative shown is of Kitty Peffer in a pose but for what cover? She is facing forward but on the cover backwards but same dress, gun and stance. Click on the photo for the answer.

Funnily enough the second strip of negatives I picked up to use with the digitiser proved to be of a cover of a book I already had but not identified previously from the negative. Although not PAN it still gets a place in the collection!

I recently got a email from Jules Burt asking if I had spotted that ‘I Was Cicero’ by Elyesa Bazna has two versions, one fat and one thin? I had to say I hadn’t only having one but as soon as it was pointed out I managed to get a copy of the one I didn’t have. I don’t know if one is rarer than the other as both seem to be readily available from sellers.

The covers back and front are the same as are the printing details but one has 192 pages, the other 176 plus the fat one has the photographs interspersed amongst the pages while the other has them all together in the middle.

I recently mentioning the artwork for ‘Trouble In July’ that was up for sale and after some haggling where I think I probably spent a bit more than I wanted but the seller definitely got less than he wanted I now have it. I’ve still not found out if it was actually used for the 1964 edition but I’ve put it on a a page with other Caldwell titles from the same time and in the same style.

Having picked up a duplicate copy of ‘Death To The French’ trying to decide which was the copy to keep and which to donate to the National Trust I’m glad I had a good look. What I hadn’t noticed was that they have different price code letters on the spine with one being ‘X’ and one being ‘A’ The ‘X’ means it was priced at 3/6 while the ‘A’ was for 4/0 or 20p as it was on the cusp of decimalization. Now wondering how many more there may be like this and how many I may have given away!

Pleased to hear from Colin Larkin that his book “Cover Me: The Vintage Art of Pan Books: 1950-1965″ is now available in paperback with a few minor corrections made including a sex change for ‘Bip’ Pares who was actually a woman namely Ethel Pares, She was born on 27th February 1904 in the Thames-side village of Clewer, just beyond Windsor. She was the second child of the marriage of Basil Pares (1869-1943) and his wife Caroline Evelyn Whistler (1874-1959), who had married in Norfolk in 1902. Her father was a younger son of the well-to-do family of John and Katharine Pares.

This photo is of Kitty Peffer posing for the cover of ‘The D. A. Takes a Chance’ which Colin tells me in now included in the second printing.

Jules Burt continues to upload his excellent videos and here are the links to a couple of recent ones. The first is all about ‘Vintage Book Resources’ and the second is showing dozens of Books Jules Has for Sale. Most are PANs with prices from £5 right down to £1 with quantity discounts and postage worldwide at cost.

The first link has nothing to do with the great plug Jules gives my website!
Thanks Jules.

I was very sorry to hear from Anna Ludlow’s family that she had passed away peacefully last month. Anna and I emailed regularly regarding ‘Angelique’ speculating as to who the cover artists might be. Anna ran the ‘World of Angelique’ website which is a veritable treasure trove of all things ‘Anne Golon‘  I just hope it will be possible to keep it as a lasting legacy to all her hard work over the years.
UPDATE I have just heard from Andrew to say “Anna paid for the site to keep going for some time and I will seek to retain it – if I can find a way to access it. Anna left me five pages of detailed passwords – but my IT skills were never as good as hers”

It was also sad to hear that Dervla Murphy had died last Sunday at the age of 90.  She was born on the 28 November 1931 and was an Irish touring cyclist and author of adventure travel books, writing for more than 50 years. Dervla is probably best known for her book ‘Full Tilt:’ about an overland cycling trip to India.  This cover hasn’t been miss scanned , it really was trimmed to a much smaller size than normal! She followed this with work helping Tibetan refugees in India and Nepal which she wrote about in ‘Tibetan Foothold’ also in PAN.

I was really pleased to get an email from Joan of the Eden Valley Museum in Edenbridge who, a while ago, wrote an article in their newsletter about PAN as they had a dispatch centre in the town. Joan said she had had a letter from a gentleman who worked there in the 50’s writing about sending the books all over the country from Edenbridge Mainline Station. She said the writer is more than happy for me to include it here so click on the small letter to get a larger version.

Below is a photograph of Edenbridge Station in the 1950’s

I was pleased to be able to pick up the artwork for the 1970 edition of ‘Hornblower and the Crisis’ but wasn’t sure of the artist until I got it. I was even more pleased  to see, on turning it over, the name David Tayler on the back. I’ve wanted an example of David’s work to go in my small collection for quite a while. I asked Colin Larkin if he could confirm it was by Tayler’ which he did, plus that the late and very much missed, Ken Hatherley had another one he said. Funnily enough the first PAN ‘Hornblower’ was by Tayler back in 1957 and this was one of his last. I’ve put all the PAN ‘Hornblower’ covers on one page HERE I’m still trying to check if there was a 1972 edition of ‘Lieutenant Hornblower’

Simon emailed to ask a question about the cover of ‘The Songs of Summer’ by Robert Silverberg with cover by Julek Heller. He wondered what was going on in the top inch or so. I will confess I had not noticed but said I would email Julek to ask him. It was just after I sent it I noticed this.

Sad to say we have lost yet another great book cover artist in the last decade. Julek was born in Jerusalem on the 1st October 1944 to Polish parents who moved to the UK. He studied art at the Chelsea College of Art and the Royal Academy. His career as an illustrator began in the mid-1970’s, working on children’s television programme Jackanory for the BBC and book covers for many different publishers including PAN. As for the cover I think it is the serpent looking up at the buildings from underwater at the waterline. I sent belated condolences to the family and got a lovely message back.

Just for a change I’m including scans of the three Piccolo ‘True Animal Stories’ series by Eric R Delderfield. I think PAN only published one other title by Delderfield namely, ‘Introduction to Inn Signs’ I’ve also included another Piccolo tile ‘The World of Wolves‘ by Jacquelyn Berrill as I think it’s a great cover.

A while ago I was lent a photo album belonging to Simon Bott, Alan Bott’s son and I scanned all the photos for future use. Unfortunately these were stored on a drive that died completely and I thought I had lost them but weirdly I’ve just come across one on another drive. It features Josephine Bott nee Blumenfeld holding at a guess Simon although the Bott’s had three children, one boy and two girls. I may have to grovel and ask if I can borrow the album again.

Jules Burt has produced another great video and this time looking at James Bond books of which over half are PAN editions. Click HERE to watch it. Jules mentions that ‘The Life of Ian Fleming’ by John Pearson is not a true first (around 19 minutes 30 seconds in) He is right in that a true first edition first printing is numbered E12 and not just E as on copies so many sellers claim is a first. The problem is the printing history is identical in both printings. It did take me a while to find a copy of with E12. Also there is a difference on the back cover including where the price has gone up 5c in New Zealand!

Looking at ‘The Flood‘ by John Creasey published by Hodder and Stoughton I thought the lady on the front cover looked familiar. She must be based on Sophia Loren as has already appeared on ‘The Boy on a Dolphin’ in similar pose.

I think I may have asked this before but does anyone know if there was ever books 1 and 2 in the Berkley series ‘Selections from the PAN Book of Horror Stories’? I have the Fawcett selection published in 1966 in their Gold Medal series which is sometimes listed as number 1 but they didn’t do any others as far as I can ascertain.

I’m sure this must be the last Jean Plaidy trilogy but I’ve said that before. This time it’s the Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain series. As to covers artists it would be a guess. Jean Plaidy was one of the pen names of Eleanor Alice Hibbert (née Burford; 1 September 1906 – 18 January 1993) who was an English writer of historical romances. She was a prolific writer who published several books a year in different literary genres, each genre under a different pen name: Jean Plaidy for fictionalized history of European royalty, Victoria Holt for gothic romances, and Philippa Carr for a multi-generational family saga. She also wrote light romances, crime novels, murder mysteries and thrillers under pseudonyms Eleanor Burford, Elbur Ford, Kathleen Kellow, Anna Percival, and Ellalice Tate.

It was only four blogs ago I mentioned Jackie Moggerridge, who was a Spitfire pilot during the war, and told her story in ‘Woman Pilot’ Now I don’t know if it is just a coincidence or that Royal Mail read my blog (ha ha) but last week on the 5th they issued a set of four stamps to commemorate the ladies who did such sterling work under arduous conditions.

Trying to find cover artists can be quite a challenge sometimes but luckily Macmillan and PAN are from the same company and have been know to share the same artwork. I had a PAN copy of ‘Harvest of the Sun’ by E. V. Thompson but it didn’t give a cover credit but on looking at the same artwork on the hardback edition it gave me a familiar name, Liz Moyes. I emailed Brian Sanders to ask if he knew of any other Thompson covers Lizzie might have painted but we drew a bank although he did tell me it was Clare Davies on the right centre cover of Lizzie’s trilogy. With ‘Cassie’ it was reversed in that the PAN edition named Cecil Vieweg while the Macmillan didn’t but it did have a wrap round cover. Just to complete the set as it were ‘Chase The Wind’ credits Gordon Crabb on both editions. I have 20 issues of the E. V. Thompson newsletter and clicking on the roundel will show the first page of issue one. 

After mentioning ‘The House at World’s End’ last week I came across the hardback edition which had very long inscriptions by both Monica Dickens and her daughter Pamela. I’ve put the scan on the same page as the Piccolo edition with the cover by artist Peter Charles of whom we still know nothing apart from he might have been American. This could account for why there are so few covers by him on UK editions. Any PAN Fans in the States know anymore?

I like it when I find a cover I haven’t seen before and this time it was for the 1977 edition of ‘Raintree County’ by David Tayler. It uses the same artwork as the 1958 edition with a few tweaks, so recycling nearly 20 years later.

On our visit to the family in Kent last week we popped over to Whitstable for the day as they had a ‘town trail’ quiz for us to follow. What I did spot that was not included in it was a blue plaque on a house where Peter Cushing spent the last years of his life. This made me think of which covers featured Peter and so far I have only come up with two namely ‘The Man Who Finally Died’ and ‘Dr. Terror’s House of Horror’ Click on the plaque to see the house.

It was good to hear from Jim O’Brien again who was asking if I knew anything about artist Peter Charles who painted four covers for the ‘World’s End’ series. Sorry to say I don’t and searching doesn’t seem to throw up any useful answers, anyone out there who can help? Jim also mentioned he had got his article on John Raynes published in edition number 68 of ‘Illustration’ magazine from last summer. It’s a very good read especially as it features so many PAN covers plus a great picture of Sheila Raynes posing for a reference photo for ‘The Jesuit Trap’

I was pleased to get an email from Nicholas Blake to let me know PAN had awarded another of their ‘Golden PAN Awards’. This time to Douglas Stuart’ for his Booker Prize winning novel ‘Shuggie Bain’ which has now sold over a million copies. Douglas was presented with the award at a surprise ceremony on the 21st April. This just happened to be my wife’s birthday and I think I made it into her good books by giving her the original artwork for ‘Also Known As Sadzia! The Belly Dancer!‘ painted by Kay Hodges. which she had always said was one of her favourites.

Amongst the many items I acquired that were going to be included in the ‘PAN Book  of Horror Stories Scrapbook’ are several letters from Herbert van Thal to authors whose stories were either included or rejected. They are mostly from around the time of numbers books 14 to 17 and I have put a selection HERE

With a  few odd Plaidy titles to go I’ll add them to the site over the next few weeks so I can get them back on the shelves but I’m including ‘Charles II’ as it is probably  the last series not featured up to now and has three titles. As usual most of the artists are unknow apart from ‘The Wandering Prince’ by Pat Owen although the other two are in the same style so could also be by him.

Francis Wilford-Smith (1927 to 2009) signed his work ‘Smilby’ which was contraction of his surname with his wife’s maiden name, Kilby. Wilford-Smith attended Warwick School and later the Camberwell School of Art in London, specialising in illustration and wood engraving. His cartoons have appeared in Punch, The New Yorker, Esquire, Playboy and the Saturday Evening Post. As far as I can tell he is only credited with one PAN cover ‘Quote & Unquote’ I did wonder which came first, the BBC Radio 4 programme ‘Quote… Unquote’ chaired by Nigel Rees and this book? It seems this book was first as the radio show wasn’t broadcast until the 4th January 1976 with the spin off books to follow. I was going to use a couple of examples of his cartoons but most of them are of a slightly saucy nature! (just Google his name!)