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

100 Posts – 100 Covers

Having started many different blogging packages (not always successfully) I think WordPress has been the one that I have found easiest to use. I have been blogging with it over the last couple of years but it came as a bit of a surprise to discover that this would be my 100th.

So to celebrate I rushed to complete my present opus which was to get all the Nevil Shute copies of the five main PAN series from 1965 to 1982. I know they are a few earlier titles and some later ones but these are the bulk and coincidently come to exactly 100 as well. I have put place markers just in case there is a cover I’ve missed but I think I’ve been very thorough in my research.

Most of the cover artist for the early series are unknown but I do have a name for the one title in the 1971 series that is just a little different from the others but I reveal that in a later blog.

Finally readers may have noticed that I now have a tendency to show several covers on a page like the Shute’s. This is because I once read a great review of my site which said the only down side was that it was one cover per page and it would have been nice to be able to compare ones from a series. This has always stuck with me. I’m hoping to rectify this so my site will be perfect!

FarCountryTV

Nevil Shute Norway Plaques

It’s always interesting to see blue plaques on buildings and this year I have spotted two for a PAN author, the stalwart Nevil Shute Norway in Howden and Southsea. Google gives me a third but I can’t find a picture of the plaque in Sydney showing its exact location, just a general view of the 47 plaques along the path from the Museum of Modern Art to the Opera House.. I think I’ll have to have a word with my Australian agent Bazeer (of the excellent Piz Gloria site) to look out for it if he ever finds himself around there.

“The Gun” C S Forester

PP
While sorting through some later titles I began to notice how many editions of ‘The Gun’ by C. S. Forester I seem to have on my shelves. As you can see I have found at least 7 different ones albeit some having very subtle differences. The book was made in to the film ‘The Pride and The Passion’ in 1957 

The cover artwork is by David Tayler who lived in Brighton. He did several covers for PAN (more in another blog) but he would take two or three weeks to produce a cover whereas others like Sam Peffer would take two or three days hence Tayler didn’t find it very profitable. I’ve also included an image of the 2001 reprint using the same artwork, I wonder if they acknowledge the source?

Return of ‘The Saint’

saintIn my last but one blog I mentioned the recycling of an PAN image used by Hodder for their 60’s ‘Saint’ series. I have now found and added another 10 I had but I still don’t know if any of them feature second hand artwork.
I did find a couple were signed by Gordon King and contacted him. He promptly replied and named another two unsigned ones as his. We are chatting further next month and I’ll list the PAN covers (I know at least 2) that he did along with other examples of his artwork later.

Exhibition update. Still no offers of the last title needed although I did see my doctor (socially I hasten to add) and she has promised to ask around her friends in India.

Canadian Connections

PAN was always popular in Canada and Australia with them occasionally bringing out customised titles. I recently came across X730 ‘Night Without Darkness’ by Ken Orvis which had been overprinted for the Canadian market but otherwise is the same as the UK edition being printed in Aylesbury.

HarlequinThe second Canadian connection is that I acquired the checklist produced by Harlequin covering their first 25 tears. I was hoping it would list the titles jointly published by PAN and Harlequin so I could confirm if it was 11. Unfortunately it just lists the numbers and titles without any additional information but it does show ‘The Four Just Men’ on the back cover.

 

Déjà Vu Again

Back in March I posted about a French book having the same picture on its cover as a PAN one. I have now come across another instance of recycling images.

I spotted that ‘The Saint’s Getaway‘ PAN G294 from 1959 has a cover that looks very much like a PEFF and which has been heavily edited for the Hodder 1965 copy of the same title. I find I have 6 Saint titles from Hodder in this series style and all of them look as thought the artwork has been acquired from elsewhere (Hodder was briefly part of a consortium that bought out PAN Books) Anyone recognise the others?SaintGetaway

Update to my posting about appearing in the papers. So far I have had all on no responses to my request for help in finding the last PAN title X705 ‘PAN Junior Crosswords Book 3’ but have been asked several times ‘What will you do when completing the collection?’ I have been working on this for a while, hence the Hodder titles for my other website www.tikit.org to which covers get added on an ad hoc basis.

Finally, as a tail note, not sure if there is a link between my exhibition at Walsall Museum and the news that has appeared in the papers this week, I hope not.

Failure Moan!

Not quite PAN but more a TiKiT website name related post. For years I’ve had the same registration number and transferred the plate from car to car. Sometimes some  of these cars have needed an MOT. Now for the first time my car did not pass until I had spent £10 on another set of number plates and the reason being there was not a  space between the 4 and the following T! Now looking around at other cars I can only presume they must change theirs if they need an MOT as some are almost illegible in an effort to try and make it spell something. I have to say my favourite was a BMW convertible with two blonde ladies on board and the plate read BOO8 with the two black fasteners strategically placed.

NumberPlate

Warning – this is an illegal number plate!

‘The Land Of Shinar’

Puabi

Headdress of Princess Puabi

I recently acquired a glass photographic plate as it said on it ‘PAN Books F466’ I thought the image looked vaguely familiar and thanks to a quick Google images search I had the answer which is that it is the head on the front cover of TP148 ‘The Land Of Shinar‘ by Leonard Cottrell. I presume the image was to to be used in a publication to advertise the book but the photo is not of the PAN edition as you can see there is a description under the headdress and another image to the left.

Fame At Last

I was recently cajoled into putting on a display to run for a month at our local museum where they have an area called ‘Your Corner’. I was Mr October with a selection of PAN related material following on from Mr September ’90 Years of the Radio Times’ and before Mr November Geoff Tristram an artist who designed stamps and banknotes. It started of locally and went wider and I’m pleased to say the newspaper coverage included a plea for the last known title I’m still after so fingers crossed. Interestingly none of the books shown in the newspaper photo are actually part of the collection being ones with ISBNs. Click on the blurb below to see some of the display.

Pan Paperbacks Display

James Herriot

Following on from my recent post about James Herriot I came across a edition on eBay from Canada. The seller said it was PAN but gave no ISBN so I posted a question to ask but got no reply and the sale has now ended. Does any one recognise it as being published by PAN?Herriot

UPDATE I have now spoken to the seller and they say they can’t find it anymore!