Wishing all PANFans a Happy 2020 and here’s to many more blogs about PAN Books, their artists and anything else that comes to light.

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After watching ‘Paddington 2’ which is still one of my favourite recent films there was a documentary on the author of ‘Paddington’, Michael Bond. They visited his daughter, Karen, and on the wall was a portrait of Michael holding a book and I was surprised to see it not not what I would have expected but rather ‘Olga da Polga’ with a cover by Hans Helweg. PAN also published several of the ‘Paddington’ titles. Also on over the holiday was another of my favourite films ‘Small Soldiers’ written by fellow PANFan Gavin Scott.

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It was really nice to get a call out of the blue last Tuesday from artist David Scutt who wished me a ‘Happy Christmas’ I’ve mentioned David before as he painted four PAN covers but also many more for other publishers including the Phillip Pullman covers for ‘His Dark Materials’ series as serialised on BBC TV recently.

It was on the 16th December 1999 that I first registered the domain name www.tikit.net which became the home of this website. Since then there have been many others including www.panfans.club as someone once suggested and I liked it but it just redirects back to the original. 

I used the ‘Wayback Machine’ to get the earliest screenshot it had captured and it was from 25th November 2002. I’m really surprised that it has not changed that much apart from the inclusion of the now weekly blog of which this is number 419. This actually works out at more than one a week since I it started it on the 1st march 2012. I also noticed while capturing the screens it still said ‘First Twenty Five’ at the top so now changed to ‘First Forty Five’ which is more accurate.

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Here are details of Christmas book signings at ‘The PAN Bookshop’ but unfortunately it look like we are too late for both of them, not just by a few days but by a few years! Just looking at the address I noticed it’s Reading which seems to be a different place to the one I thought it was in Fulham (as in photo above) which closed on the 19th January 2008. Did the Reading one close at the same time?

Doing a quick’ Google’ I found a couple of pictures related to the ‘Butts Centre’ in Reading but no sign of a book shop. One is an outside view and the other of DJ David Jacobs with ‘Miss Ty-Phoo Tea’ at the opening of the complex in 1971 Thanks to ‘Berkshire Live’ for the photos.

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My son and his wife plus two month old grandson William are visiting this week and I was really ‘chuffed with what I managed to get him for Christmas. All will be revealed next week when they return home for festivities in Kent as I don’t want William reading this blog and spoiling the surprise! My wife says “Ha Ha”

After trying to contact artist Kevin Tweddell on and off for a while I gave it another go recently and this time I got a very nice but rather sad reply from Kevin’s daughter Thea but unfortunately it was to say Kevin sadly passed away earlier in the year.

Thea wrote “Kevin’s father was very artistic and although a northern work man he encouraged his son in his ability to draw from a young age. At the age of 16 he left home and went to art college where he met many wonderful people and a lot of the famous names to come in life. He then moved to London where he worked for Hallmark. Many jobs succeeded this but he fell into illustration and loved his time spent in Convent Garden working with and socialising with so many artistic people. He spent many years bringing up his daughter living in Twickenham and continued to illustrate book covers and alike. Then in 2007 we ventured to Devon to buy a pub restaurant which had always been a dream of ours. ( The Tower Inn ) We have spent the last 12 years working hard but loving being part of the community and our little business.He was diagnosed with terminal cancer in November last year and told he had only weeks.But in his true form, he embraced life, said all his goodbyes and had some brilliant parties to see him off.He is terribly missed but he rests now just across the road in the village graveyard, to keep an eye on us all.

So if you find yourself down by St James Church, Slapton why not pop in and say “Hello” I’ve rounded up a few of Kevin’s covers which can be seen HERE. I’m sure there are more to be added.

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PAN produced many different study aids using the ‘Brodie’s Notes’ imprint (Later changed to PAN Study Aids) but they also produce revision cards ring bound in a sort of folder. HERE are a few I found 

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After over bingeing on Sam Peffer’s negatives I took a break but I’ve now gone back to looking for more cover photos. I’ve added one to G380 ‘The Lost Days of My Life’ plus Kathy sent me the photo below she had found showing a better shot for 436 ‘Sinners and Shrouds’, this one doesn’t have Kitty modelling as the maid. It looks like the finished cover was an amalgam of several different shots.

I found the above in the ‘Newspaper Archives’ but as my subscription has run out I can’t check which paper or when, maybe when my ‘attack of the meanies’ has worn off I may renew. I wonder who might have won it or got a consolation prize, anyone out there?

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I’m still adding more titles to the PAN Horizons series page which must have round about 70 titles in a list I’ve compiled from all the various lists inside the books. PAN has used many different well know cover artists and some I’ve contacted previously, some are no longer with us and some still to track down. I will try and get a copy of all the titles and put a scan on the one page but some of the prices asked are just ridiculous going into three figures!

UPDATE I have managed to track down at least one copy of the 69 ‘Horizons’ titles (number now confirmed thanks to Alysoun at PAN for a list) although there will be more on the page as some had a couple of  editions with different covers. I have bought 68 of them (still a few to arrive, fingers crossed they don’t get ‘lost in the post’) at a much more reasonable price, usually less than £2 so who pays the £121 pound asked for one I found – nobody by the looks of it!

The only one I couldn’t see for sale was “Those Summer Girls I Never Met” but luckily I found a very nice librarian in Waverley, New South Wales who had a copy and scanned in the front and back for me, thanks Sally.

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This is a bit ‘old news’ now but something I mean to to link to in back 2017 namely a You Tube video from book cover designer Holly Dunn. She is talking about the titles PAN produced as part of their 70th Anniversary celebration and she explains that they are a lot clever than they appear at first glance. Click HERE to see it.