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

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!

Godley and Creme

While idly searching for all things PAN I found a reference to a book “The Charge of The Light Brigade” which including a cardboard model to cut out and make of a Hussar by Kevin Godley and Lol Creme. The site stated it was published by PAN but it was not one I knew. I do have “The Railway Children”  and “Cromwell” both published by PAN and both including cardboard models by Godley and Creme. On further investigation I found it was actually published by Cato O’Brien and even though not PAN I’m going to add it to my informal ‘wants’ list so if anyone out there has a spare copy …….?


If Godley and Creme sound vaguely familiar it is because they were part of ’10cc’ before splitting up and becoming ‘Godley & Creme’ in the late 1970’s

Gino D’Achille

Photograh from the website of Gino D'AchilleGino D’Achille was born in Rome in 1935  and was a prolific book cover artist for numerous publishers including PAN. I will be adding a selection of his covers over the next few weeks but for now I’ve made a page to show all the 10 HART titles by John B Harvey with artwork by Gino. I have been in contact with him via Simona D’Achille who tells me “He remembers painting these covers very well, he had free reign in terms of artistic choices and he retains all publishing rights. He also retains his originals and we are presently working on making prints available soon” Some of the originals can be seen on Gino’s website. Gino now lives in London but unfortunately suffers from Parkinson’s Disease though he is still able to sketch.

James Alfred Wright and Golden PAN Awards

Click here to visit The World Of James Herriot website.

Just back from our annual jaunt up north to do another 15 miles walking the ‘Yorkshire Wolds Way’ (we should finish it in about 3 years at this rate !) and this time we made an excursion to the market town of Thirsk in North Yorkshire. I had found a reference on the BBC ‘History Of The World’ site to there being a Golden PAN Award belonging to James Alfred Wright, better know as James Herriot, in the ‘World Of James Herriot’ museum in the town so a visit became a priority. I contacted Ian Ashton, the MD, and he kindly got the award out of safe storage as it is not normally on display. I could not only see one at last close up but best of all I actually got to hold it. Thanks to all at the museum which is  well worth a visit with room after room of fascinating material.
plaque1

 Click this link to go to the James Herriot Golden PAN Award
Click this link to see other other Golden PAN Award authors

“Midnight Lace” PAN Books – Nationwide Promotion

Midnight LaceI recently acquired the press promo pack for the 1960 film “Midnight Lace” and included was a single page insert from PAN. I’ve scanned this along with the rest of the pack and made into a flash book. On the single page it states:
“PAN Books are the publishers of the paper-back edition of “MIDNIGHT LACE” They are issuing 2,000 showcards to their many stockists throughout the country backing up this promotion. Additional showcards can be obtained free on request from Ad-Sales Dept”
What happened to those 2,000+ showcards, did anyone think one was worth keeping or did they all get thrown away?

PAN Horror Books

bookmarkAfter reading the excellent article “The Nightmare Painters” relating to PAN Horror Books by Johnny Mains in issue 4 of the ‘Illustrators’ Magazine (I’m giving it a plug as it’s gave me one in issue 1 and it’s also a really good magazine) ) I realised how few titles I had actually got. On looking on eBay I found a complete set at 99p but with the dreaded words ‘collection only’ which I usually avoid but then realised the post code was for a road just 2 miles away. In went the bid and although they were just a little more than 99p I picked them up the next day and the majority are in very good condition. I’ve scanned them all in and put them on one page as there are not many sites that show them all at the same time. The dates are for the actual dates in the books so not all first.
To complement the Horror books I’ll make a page for the Ghost books as I think I have them all so watch this space.

Anyone Know The Artist?

PhyllisWhitney

Phyllis Whitney 1903 to 2008

Still finding bits and pieces of artwork and managing to identify the title. This week it has been ‘Silverhill’ (1967)  by Phyllis Whitney. Although PAN published several titles by her I’ve only found one other example using the same style of cover ‘Snowfire’ (1973) She also wrote ‘Spindrift’ in 1975 which would seem to tie in with the others but is a completely different style.
What I would like to know is who painted the original cover? I’d suggest Michael Johnson but is it good enough for him?

“Flight Into Danger”

BookFairVisited the annual book fair at NT Baddesley Clinton on Saturday and this time it wasn’t raining. Vast range of books of all vintages and it’s run by someone who knows and appreciates them. Came away with a few bits and pieces, some later PANs, upgrade copies and one I thought was interesting. It was ‘Flight Into Danger’ and had a sticker on the front for Singapore Airlines in-flight library which got me thinking of how many other inappropriate titles could they have chosen? Also when putting together the page I couldn’t help but notice the authors billing chances backwards and forwards over the editions.

Flight4