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

Great Western Novels

A few weeks ago I mentioned visiting Yorkshire Quality Paperbacks where I bought several books including the 1972 edition of ‘The Feud’ by Amelia Bean. I realised it must be part of a series as I have the original artwork for ‘Warlock’ by Oakley Hall from 1972 in the same style. I then managed to track down another three in the series and paired them up with their older counterparts but does anyone know of any more and does anyone recognise the artist for ‘Warlock’ as it is unsigned?

Great Western Novels

Click on the picture to see the rest.

Brian Sanders

Last Tuesday I was lucky enough to be able to spend a few hours with Brian Sanders and his wife Lizzie in their studio. ‘Sandy’ has produced a phenomenal amount of artwork over the years which has been seen all round the world. These range from book covers to stamps to medals to magazine illustrations to wine labels to Readers Digest etc. He has painted covers for Arrow, Fontana, Collins and Penguin to name a few but to me, more importantly, PAN Books. It was a privilege to see the originals for the 1970’s Steinbeck and Hornblower series plus many more. I am currently trying to track down copies of several of his covers, some of which are ascribed on the back, but most are not. I’ll put a message on the blog when I have completed it.

Brian Sanders

Counter Displays

I’m always on the look out for PAN Books counter displays, the sort of thing thrown out as soon as the promotion was over. I know someone who has a couple and I’ve salesmens catalogues showing them but no luck up to now when I managed to get a display for ‘The Conscripts’ by Walter Winward measuring 17″ by 14″ so if anyone else is throwing any out ……….

Ian Fleming: The Bibliography

It seems like years ago that I was talking to Jon Gilbert about his forthcoming publication ‘Ian Fleming: The Bibliography’ but it looks like it’s nearly here at last. Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be rushing out to buy a copy at £175 but I have read there will be a trade edition later.
Jon says it shows 95% of the PAN editions so there’s the challenge for all us PAN Fans, have we got the missing 5%?

To see the flier with all the book details click HERE and to read an interview with Jon Gilbert on Spy Vibe click HERE

Apologies

Sorry there has not be a post of late but we have been off walking the ‘Wolds Way’ in North Yorkshire and still managing to find time to visit the few remaining second hand book shops. ‘Yorkshire Quality Paperbacks’ in Pickering came up trumps and I bought six titles for less than three pounds. One of these will be the subject of a later blog when I have tracked down some editions to go with it.

For Adults Only!

I’ve always been disappointed that PAN didn’t give away more bits and pieces linked to their titles unlike Penguin but I have managed to get hold of a calendar given away in 1974 to coincide with the publication of ‘The Pin-up: A Modest History’ by Mark Gabor.
           

To see the calendar containg images of disrobed ladies click HERE

I noticed that this book has been reprinted by Taschen in 2000 with the same cover as the PAN edition.

What have you found inside a PAN?

Rob Waterhouse, a fellow PAN Fan from Australia, emailed me to say he had got a copy of ‘A Throne Of Bayonets’ PAN 350 with an slip reporting an error. I have managed to find a copy with this insert and added it to the page but he is fortunate in that his copy also has a slip mentioning Joyce Weiner, Author’s Agent which I find adds greatly to the interest.

This got me onto thinking about bits and pieces I’ve found over the years, mostly adds for life insurance, bus tickets or shopping lists but occasional PAN related bookmarks and other errata slips which I ‘ll blog about at another time. Two good finds were a) hand written and then typed detail plot analysis notes  by Marc Brody (Bill Williams) of the novel ‘A Forest Of Eyes’ PAN 248 and b) a copy of the Domino letter in a pristine copy of ‘Thunderball‘ I got for 20p. I see someone is currently asking £750 for one on eBay, funny but there doesn’t seem to be a rush of bidders!

        
Finally I was going to mention GP17 / X100 but I don’t want to fall foul of the London 2012 Brand Protection ……

Dustjackets

I’m often asked about dustjackets and how many titles had them. So far I make it 21 but if you have  any I may have missed please let me know. I have made a page to show them all which can be found here.

DUSTJACKETS