I’ve not spoken to Johnny Mains for a while so thought I’d drop him an email asking how the article I sent scans for was coming on. Johnny informs me it was published in the December/January edition of ‘The Critic’ I also asked how the second revised edition of the biography of Herbert van Thal was progressing and he tells me it is still awork in progress.
I had an email from Bazeer Fulmore of the excellent www.pizgloria.com website to ask if I had seen the PAN book about ‘Waterloo’ he’d spotted for sale in Australia. This made me get it and four like it off the shelf when I noticed, although all the same size, three are identified as part of the ‘Panorama of History’ series but two aren’t. I thought it might be date but four are 1972 so none the wiser.
Alan Hunter wrote 46 Inspector George Gently books of which PAN published just 6. Hunter was born on June 25, 1922 in Hoveton St John, Norfolk. He worked as a poultry farmer, was in the RAF, managed the antiquarian books department of Charles Cubitt in Norwich and became an antiquarian bookseller before becoming a novelist..Alan was married to Adelaide Cooper and died on February 26, 2005 in Brundall, Norfolk.
We can clearly identify that two of the six covers are by Sam Peffer and two by Pat Owen but we aren’t sure about ‘Gently Where the Roads Go’ I spotted what I thought was Pat’s signature and a couple of other PAN Fans agreed but checking with Pat’s wife, Sue, who checked with daughter Alex, they don’t think it is just the right edge of ‘O’ and then ‘wen’ Can anyone else help?
My wife and I popped over to the Astley Book Farm last week on the understanding we called in at a discount shoe store on the way back. How I suffer for my hobby! Sorry to say I only came away with a handful as it really was too cold to linger in the far reaches of the shop and all the ones I did buy were from the 10/- (50p in new money) barn which at least had the sun shining on it. We ended up in the cafe there at the table nearest the roaring stove which gave us a rosy glow.
