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

Not so much PAN but more panini!

Just returned from a break in Tuscany where, surprisingly, I did see some PAN titles in a couple of second hand book shops but unfortunately not ones I’m after. I have not come back empty handed though having found a copy of ‘James Bond: Missione Tacchi a spillo’ which apparently means ‘James Bond Strikes Camp’ and tells of him dressing up in drag and attempting to seduce a Russian general! Now to see if I can find it in English instead of the Italian as it sounds a riveting read! I also got a 2012 Adelphi edition of ‘Casino Royale’ again in Italian. The one that go away a copy of ‘Never Say Never Again’ I not seen before. The seller had a picture of it in his stock list on the computer but could we find it on the shelf and I was only in Pisa for a few hours but next time I’m there ………


The next postings will go back to being PAN related – honestly.

John Raynes 3

I have finished putting together a page of PAN related artwork by John. Although there are 24 in the “Bestsellers of Literature” John only did the 20 show, the other 4 were by Pat Owen. Click on the Artists link above to find the page.

John Raynes 2

While putting together a page on John’s artwork I found these three photos I took which have not name on them. I suspect the first two are from the Angelique series but the third one I’ve no idea. Can you help?

Page not found?

Delving into some of the less frequently visited catalogues I found a few links that have stopped working. This had puzzled me for a while but now I’ve discovered why. Originally I was on a Windows server but last summer changed to a Linux and it would appear that Windows was NOT case sensitive but Linux is. Please let me know if you find any pages that are supposedly missing and I’ll get the page name and hyperlink to match!

John Raynes 1

Last Sunday I met up with fellow collector Jules Burt and we went down to Falmouth where we were made very welcome by John Raynes. John did many covers for PAN in the late 60’s early 70’s and I’m putting together a page and I’ll put a note here when it is ready.

Brian Sanders 2

I have finished putting together a page of PAN related artwork by Brian although I’m still short of several Steinbeck’s but as dealers seem to be asking silly prices I’ll wait till they turn up for 99p. I know the calendar isn’t PAN but the paintings are very good and I may scan the months in at a later date. Click on the Artists link above to find the page.

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 ……….