After reading the book ‘Hardware’ featuring artwork by Chris Foss I think he did ten covers for PAN some of which were a bit of a surprise as they were not S/F. Click HERE for the list of titles which will eventually be scanned in.

I have also been in contact with artist Geoff Taylor who painted three S/F covers for PAN in the late 1970’s as I was asked by a fellow PAN Fan if I knew who painted the Douglas Hill cover for ‘The Shape of Sex to Come’ and Geoff’s name popped up. It turns out he painted one that wasn’t used which I’ve shown HERE along with three other PAN covers that were used plus a Piccolo title. He was also involved with the ‘War of the Worlds’ album artwork. I’ve not discovered who painted the Hill cover, any suggestions?

Back in January I got an email from Melissa at the British Dental Journal as she was trying to contact artist Alan Cracknell as they wanted to use part of a poster he painted for Colgate on their front cover. I contacted Alan on her behalf and he said that was fine but nothing seemed to happen. I checked up last week and found it was used in March so a quick reminder to Melissa and she was a good as her word and send several copies, one of which I forwarded to Alan.

It was goodbye to Harlan Ellison who passed away last week (28/06/18) He had several titles published by PAN including ‘The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World’, ‘Deathbird Stories’ and ‘Approaching Oblivion’

I’ve decided to include the five covers for the Larry McMurty titles published by PAN even though ‘Lonesome Dove’ doesn’t have a PAN man in its logo, it’s there just for completeness – well that’s my excuse.

We’ve been away in the camper for a few days and I was hoping to be sitting out on the longest day of the year with a nice cool beer until at least 22:00 but we were actually huddled inside from 20:00 as the sun went in and there was a chill wind. On the plus side we did visit a couple of National Trust properties with second hand bookshops and I seemed to have picked up mainly Jackie Collins titles which I did intend to scan and add this week but time has beaten me. Maybe next week? Unfortunately no additions to the ‘PAN Books as see in National Trust’ properties this time.

A few of the Collins covers has artwork by Chris Moore and I’ve just been reading ‘Journey Man – the art of Chris Moore’ as I mentioned him last week plus ‘Professional Airbrushing’ by Tom Stimpson. The other Chris is Chris Foss and I’ve been in email contact with his daughter Imogene who has promised me a spreadsheet of his titles and publishers which must be a very long list. I’ve also been reading ‘Hardware’ which helps me with some of his early PAN covers that had not name.

I’ve also now got the last of the 35 Ballantine UK editions of their Adult Fantasy Series. It is ‘The King of Elfland’s Daughter’ and although not a joint PAN publication is does have the UK and Commonwealth prices sticker on the back. I’m slowly scanning them in so HERE is the link to the ones I’ve done so far

We went to the cinema last week to see the film ‘SOLO’ which, in spite of the critics reviews that slatted it, my wife and I really enjoyed. It was while I was in the foyer I notice, or rather couldn’t fail to notice, a 3D advert for the upcoming film “The Meg” Does it look familiar ? Here are some ‘JAWS’ covers for comparison.
After Douglas Anderson put on list of all the PAN/Ballantine Adult Fantatsy series of 35 titles I checked mine and found I had 34 of them (anyone got ‘The King of Elfland’s Daughter’ in UK version?) Douglas asked for scans of 4 he hadn’t seen so those are ones I’ve done first and can be found HERE Some say PAN/Ballantine, usually as an overprint, on the cover where as others you have to check inside.

Being in a second hand bookshop last week and having some time to spare I started looking through a box of Reader’s Digest Condensed Books as a while ago I bought a folder of artwork by the late Jack McCarthy. These was mainly used as the frontispiece for the stories, plus a few page illustrations but none of them are labelled. Up to now I have found three so was really pleased to find this fourth one but still several to go. As far as I know McCarthy, of whom I can find nothing, didn’t paint any covers for PAN.

As it was Father’s day yesterday I received a great 3D card from our four cats and the vixen who calls in most days. Apparently ‘they’ chose it to remind me of the time last September when we met Julia and Axel at the ceremony where they were given their Golden PAN Awards.

UPDATE It appears there weren’t UK PAN printed editions of some of the Ballantine titles with a few printed in the USA but with UK, AU, NZ and SA cover prices. I’ve added one example to the page ‘Vathek’. Just another thirty titles to scan.

Still sorting through piles of books I came across the boxed set entitled ‘Haunted Houseful’ which consists of four Piccolo titles from around 1973. I don’t know who did the artwork for the box cover but HERE is the link to see it and the covers.

I picked up a copy of ‘Leaving Cheyenne’ by Larry McMurtry from 1989 and thought I’d add the other four titles by him published by PAN but I realised this could break my newly self imposed rule that the books must still have the figure of Pan on the logo and not the later ‘waves’ If I put all the titles on one would do so, I’ll ponder until next week

What I found interesting was that the cover above needed two artists, the lettering by Chris Moore and the background by Tom Stimpson. I emailed Chris up in Lancashire and he kindly and speedily replied “Hi Tim, Checked out your website and it’s really nice to see that someone has taken an active interest in a field of work that has largely gone unnoticed over the years. Several of your featured artists I know personally” Chris also pointed me in the direction of a website where I can find a list of his Sci-Fi covers which are many to say the least.
Both Chris Moore and Tom Stimpson painted covers for PAN and the links go to a couple of pages with a few examples that I will add to over time.

Having spent a few days down in Kent, on the Monday, which would have been Ian Fleming’s 110th birthday, we visited St Margaret’s Bay to go to the South Foreland Lighthouse (long story there I might save for another day) The guide pointed out the Granville Hotel from the top of the lighthouse and said that’s where Fleming was staying at the same time as Noel Coward (who wrote ‘Star Quality’) and where Fleming wrote ‘Moonraker’ Now I believed this until I came home and started checking and have to say I’m still a bit confused. The Granville Hotel was demolished in the late 1990’s and apartments are built on the site but as Fleming leased a property in St Margaret’s Bay, namely ‘White Cliffs’ would he stay in the hotel? He took on the house in 1951 off Noel Coward who acquired it in 1945. Fleming also wrote ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ while living here.

We also saw the house called ‘Moonraker’ at 32, Granville Road and designed after the description of Hugo Drax’s in the book.

I’ve now got two more copies of ‘The Towering Inferno’ film related books but disappointingly it doesn’t say who designed the cover for ‘The Glass Inferno’ but ‘The Tower’ was by the New Studio Inc.

After helping Emma Donoghue track down her Golden PAN Award she very kindly sent me a signed bookplate which I’ve stuck in the front of my proof copy of ‘ROOM’

I’ve also added a couple more scans of UK Exhibitors Campaign books featuring ‘The Last Angry Man’ and ‘Kings Go Forth’

…. and finally Bazeer in Australia spotted another PAN appearing on a television programme and I spotted one a while ago so they’ve now been added to the ‘PAN as seen of TV‘ page.

It was odd but last Saturday I seemed to have so many important things to do, watch fox cubs on the old railway line, tie up the bean canes on the allotment, cut the grass and trim the hedge at home which unfortunately meant I didn’t have time to watch the ‘Royal Wedding’ To make up for missing the event of the day I’ve been investigating this riveting read but it only goes up to 1977!

I’ve also been in communication with Emma Donoghue about her missing ‘Golden PAN Award’ and I’m happy to say it’s turned up in Canada and Emma kindly sent me a couple of photographs of her holding it which can be seen HERE.

Lastly a while ago I mentioned I’d picked up a badge featuring one of the PAN logos used in the 1990s. I’ve just got another one but I still can’t find the page I had which featured all the logos of this style for the different genres.

This photograph was apparently taken in 1905 for a guide to Essex and shows a donkey cart on the Saffron Waldon to Dunmow Road lead by nanny Lizzie Drain of Thaxted. Now you may be wondering what this has to do with PAN? Well the child on the right is Estelle Blumenfeld (aged 4) and the one of the left is Josephine (aged 2) Josephine went on to marry Alan Bott, founder of PAN Books while Estelle had a son named Ralph Holmes Vernon-Hunt who became MD of PAN Books and is probably most well know for posing as James Bond on the covers in the 60’s. At the time they were living at Hill Farm, Great Easton, Dunmow.

Coincidently I only noticed this week that ‘Stand Up Virgin Soldiers’ by Leslie Thomas is dedicated to Ralph Vernon-Hunt.

After getting a couple of Morse books from Bulgaria I now find I have ten with the pink/red PAN logo on the covers and they can be seen HERE. I’m still trying to sort out dates as some seem to be the same, just wondering if there was a TV tie-in and a non tie-in version?

I’m always amazed at the range of subjects covered by PAN and HERE is a classic example. I’ve been using it for at least three days but it hasn’t lived up to the cover saying “A quick and effective method of learning to play the piano … now” What it doesn’t say having even a modicum of musical talent might help hence I failed!

… and lastly I have now changed the front page which used to say ‘”25ish Years’ so it now reads ’45ish Years’ or really up to the time we lost the figure of PAN in the logo.

PS Glad to see my hyperlinks are now red as WordPress, after many years of letting me change their colour, decided no matter what I did I was going to get blue. Thank goodness for Google and it appears I was not the only one puzzled but luckily someone put on the HTML code that solved it.

Back in September when PAN gave out six Golden PAN Awards, four recipients were there to collect them in person while Ken Follett got his a few weeks later which left Emma Donoghue, author of million seller “Room”, to have hers sent to Canada where she resides. I emailed Emma and asked if it was possible to have a photo of her holding the award when she received it to which she replied “Happy to send that pic when award arrives, sure” As I’d not heard any more I asked again this week and I got a surprising answer “They never sent it to me! but I’m chasing it up now, thanks for the reminder” so watch this space!

Always on the look out for different PAN related bits and pieces I was pleased to find a printers proof copy of the cover of ‘The Tower’ by Richard Martin Stern. The cover was for the film tie-in ‘The Towering Inferno’ but what I didn’t realise was the film was based on two novels, the other being the “The Glass Inferno” I got an earlier PAN edition (from Poland which arrived quicker than a couple bought from the UK) which has the same image as the American Warner edition and the PAN edition surprised me by being printed in the USA. Click HERE to see the covers although a couple are off the net so I’ve ordered my own copies from the States. I’m hoping they might list the cover artists as the UK ones don’t. STOP PRESS The movie poster has the same artwork as the later PAN edition and it is credited to John Berkey.

Also acquiring early editions of ‘Morse titles by Colin Dexter which still have the pink rectangle/red circle logo on them and I have got up to “The Secret of Annexe 3” from 1986. Just wondering if anyone knows if that logo was used on later titles? I’ll put up the page next week if two variants I found in Bulgaria arrive in time especially as the postage was less than I’ve paid for books sent in the UK…….…… and finally you got to admire the optimism – and not even free p&p!

Still rescanning in covers and sorting the piles that got moved into the library while waiting for the drawers which are now all in place. I’ve put in a order for some track for the railway which will now go all around the top of the shelves because my wife said she thought that was what it was going to do as seen in some well known bookshops. Unfortunately most of it was out of stock but promised for next week when I will include more pictures.

I’m trying to remember bookshops that we’ve visited with model railways which have included ‘Barter Books’ in Northumberland, I seem to remember one in ‘The Book Shop’ in Wigtown but could be false memory and one in a redundant station in Norfolk, anyone got a name?

I rediscovered my limited edition copy of ‘The Little Drummer Girl’ by John Le Carre put on one side as it was supposed to be signed by him but appeared not to be. Now on having a better look I can see a very faded red scrawl on the front cover which does indeed say John Le Carre. It was limited to 739 copies (mine is 000421) and when I asked a Facebook group if anyone had any idea why Jules Burt suggested that was the number of booksellers but since then I’ve found a copy someone was trying to sell on eBay for £400 but didn’t. The interesting part was it also had a photo of a sales order saying there was no charge and it was for the “Home Buyer (Samples)” Click HERE to see the page.….. and finally another version of the cover by Terry Oakes, the hardback edition of ‘Arbitrage Martien’ although he is not credited this time.