Following on from Golden PAN awards last week the first winner was Paul Brickhill whose statue was given posthumously in 1964 for “The Dam Busters” This title reached a million sales in 1956 and PAN announced the fact by including a strapline across the bottom of editions from then shown HERE.

They also produced a special hardback edition which I was told was to coincide with the million sales and film premiere. I was also told it was limited to 100 copies and just for PAN employees. I first hear about this from a fellow PAN Fan, Derek Steer, followed up by a query from Garry Scarr in Canada. This was a long time ago and I’ve looked for a copy on and off for many years but without success.

Talking to Gordon Young he mentioned giving the flag of the ‘Laloun’ to the PAN archives but also his special hardback edition of “The Dam Busters” This made me look again and as luck would have it there was a copy on eBay for ‘Buy it Now’ or “Make an Offer” I didn’t hesitate and bought it straight away for £10 including postage. When it arrived I looked at the first page and it was given to a John Burt. On looking back at old emails Garry had said his was to an Ann Orford while Derek said there was no name in his. I’m presuming Gordon’s copy was his own, I need to check when he comes back from the holiday he needed to recover from all the excitement.

I talked to Trevor, son of John Burt, who was selling the book and he said his father never worked for PAN but for W H Smith and later became Advertising Director at “The Sunday Times” The other anomaly is that the film premiere was actually in 1955 but the special edition was not published until 18 months later.

Talking of Gordon Young, I’m not really jealous that he gets his name on the front page of every one of the 20 PAN 70th Anniversary titles but ……..!

Due to being away for part of last week and the other part being taken up fighting the rain coming into the garage since the builders took the old roof off I’ve not managed to add all the other editions of “The Dam Busters” that I wanted to do. Hopefully next week.

The photos on the page HERE are ones I took on the night PAN gave out six of their ‘Golden PAN Awards’ to authors for selling over a million copies of one title (apart from the one of Jackie Collins who sadly is no longer with us)

I also decided to push the boat out and buy all the 20 titles PAN reissued with the retro covers as part of their 70th. Online gave me two companies selling them at the best price I could find. I chose one as it offered ‘click and collect’ and the store was local. Unfortunately their website couldn’t cope with 20 items in the basket and crashed after 12! I then went to the other company which offered free postage and this time there was no problem.The amusing part was when the postman came to the door yesterday with my own box of parcels. The seller had only sent each one in a separate envelope or packet and on counting I find I only have 19 so hoping the last one arrives on Monday.I have to admit the 19 do look good in my vintage Bakelite bookcase, the EBCO design classic apparently. The only problem is as I said I’m one title short and unless it’s a very slim volume …..!

Disappointed in two respects regarding the “JAMES BOND AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY BY JOHN PEARSON (UNIQUE PROOF COPY PAN BOOKS)”  The first was that I didn’t ‘win’ it as I think James Bond fans must have deeper pockets than us poor PAN Fans and secondly it went for £109.07. If it was just one pound more it could have ended with 007!

As I’ve mentioned a few times lately PAN Books are celebrating their 70th Anniversary on the 5th September 2017. I’ve also been compiling the recollections of Gordon Young (picture left) who was First Mate on the ‘Laloun’ which in 1947 brought over the first titles published by PAN. This was because of paper shortages here in the UK but not so in France hence them being produced by Parisienne printers.

It was back in September that Gordon and I first made contact and I remember being really excited to get his email when we were staying in our camper on an apple farm near Cahir in Ireland. I wanted to email him straight back but I find I need to be cautious using my phone as the spell checker doesn’t always give me what I expect! When we did eventually communicate Gordon sent me several emails over the weeks, plus his own photos, telling the story of the ups and downs of transporting the books by sea. I’ve made a page which can be seen HERE (99.9% of the text is Gordon’s) I was really pleased to find that PAN has invited Gordon to their ‘birthday bash’ and that they are going to interview him for their aural archives.

Down in Cheltenham last week for a few days to pop in to see Paul Davies who was holding an excellent exhibition of his current work as a cartoonist. Paul also drew twelve PAN covers for Leslie Thomas titles in 1982, he hated them! I took a few with me that Paul kindly signed on the back and they can be seen HERE along with Paul’s cartoon of the bookseller who once was an all too familiar character. We had a long and interesting chat about many things we have in common.

While in Cheltenham called in to four bookshops (there was another one but listed under ‘rare books’ so decided probably a bit too posh) with Moss Books certainly winning for quantity and floor stacks but unfortunately meant I couldn’t get to see a lot of what was double stacked on the shelves behind the precarious piles

Northing to do with books but called in to the local steam railway station and managed to get a visit on to the footplate, quite ‘chuffed’ as it was only me and the drivers kids that were allowed up! It was a very hot day made even hotter standing next to the open firebox.
One publication I’d missed was the paperback edition of “Back From The Dead” by Johnny Mains from 2016 in which I’d like to say my website and I both get a mention but as I’m too modest ……! It uses the Les Edwards artwork that was intended for the defunct “PAN Book of Horror Scrapbook”

Finally a couple of updates in that I’ve found the last Paddington title ‘Paddington Goes Shopping’ and Alan Cracknell has kindly sent me some printers proofs of his non PAN book covers plus something we’ve not had for a while, a new entry in the ‘As Seen of TV’ section.

Next week is very close to the 70th anniversary of PAN Books so I’m going to publish Gordon Young’s recollections of being First Mate on the ‘Laloun’ the boat that brought over the first titles from France where they were printed.

Just checking and it was two years ago last Wednesday that June added a comment to the blog. We made contact and she gave me the following information:

I joined Pan books around 1971 when the offices were on Tothill Street. I was hired as the secretary to Tony Bowen-Davis (art director) and when he left, then David Larkin.
Ralph had a series of secretaries ( he was a tough guy to please) so when he invited me to become his executive Secretary I was frank in telling him that I loved the company and if we did not get along, I asked him to promise me he would find me another opportunity in the company. I never went back to the art department. Ralph was one of the best, funniest, most irreverent people I ever worked with. A tough guy exterior but with marshmallow feelings.
When my husband and I moved back to Canada (3 years later) Ralph and the Pan crew held me a going away party and presented me with a jade ring, beautiful watch and an original caricature card (of Ralph) illustrated by one of the chaps in the art department.
The people at Pan were wonderful and the experience of working with Ralph still rates as fun and memorable.

We then lost contact as June went off travelling around the world so I was pleasantly surprised to hear from her again last month. She had returned and on sorting out found some great PAN related souvenirs of her leaving PAN which she is happy for me to share so click HERE to see them. June has also promised me some photos of the occasion which I hope to include in a later blog.

With the 70th Anniversary coming up I’ve found a page HERE showing all the 20 titles that will be available early in September. As part of further planned celebrations, Pan Macmillan is also re-introducing its Golden Pan statuette. On Tuesday 5th September at Foyles, it will be awarding five “Golden Pans” to authors on its list who have sold 1m copies over the lifetime of a book. It will also be celebrating its 70th anniversary with a party at Frankfurt.

STOP PRESS I’ve just heard that science fiction writer Brian Wilson Aldiss O.B.E died last Saturday (19th) the day after his 92nd birthday. PAN published several of his books and he jointly edited the 3 ‘Decade’ titles with Harry Harrison. Unfortunately all my books are currently packed away await moving but I’ll see if I can find any to scan and add to a later blog.

Julek Heller was born in 1944 in Jerusalem of Polish parents, who came to England as refugees in 1947. Now living in London, Heller has been working on non-commissioned fantasy illustrations since 2000. I have tried to contact him via his website but no response so far.His first covers for PAN/Piccolo, are far as I can find, were ‘The Songs of Summer’ by Robert Silverberg and ‘More Irish Fairy Tales’ by Sineadde de Valera from 1979. He went on to paint several more covers for both imprints plus later ones under the TOR imprint. Some examples can be found HERE with more to be added soon.

I’ve been communicating with June Read in Canada this last week. She contacted me a while ago, then went off travelling but has now returned and is sorting out bits and pieces from when she retired from being Ralph Vernon-Hunts secretary in the 1970’s. Here is a taster with more to come next week. I’ve added the bit from the book cover as a reminder.
My son’s wedding in Kent went off really well last Saturday and although we did get the downpour at 2:30, just as we came out of the church (which had unfortunately been forecast all the proceeding  week) the sun shone after this. I was very proud of my wife with her reading from Shakespeare. Even the vicar said he didn’t want to sound patronising but it was one of the best readings he had heard. We hope Thomas and Catherine have a very long and happy marriage. On the minus side I’ve missed two of my favourite ‘must visit’ annual book fairs, the Methodist church in Lichfield and the Baddesley Clinton NT fair near Warwick both starting on the 5th.

With my son’s wedding this coming weekend and having just survived a weekend of go-karting, an assault course in the trees and 10 pin bowling I should feel flattered that my son invited me along on his stag weekend.

While all this is going on and with holidays coming up plus our ‘Back The Track’ campaign the blogs may be a little thin (no change there I hear you say)

I have been offered some PAN artwork which may or may not be by Julek Heller but we can’t discover if it was ever used. Does anyone recognise the unicorn below? We’ve had it out of the frame hoping for clues but all there is written on it is the size.

Heller did several covers for PAN and I’ll show a selection of these next week but he also lists several PAN titles on his website which I cannot track down including the ‘Gormenghast’ trilogy. I’ve sent him an email but not reply as yet. As a taster here is one he did for Piccolo.

I’ve also been sorting out my SF titles and looking at cover artists. The one below is the first that I have found that uses this media.It says the cover is ‘Electrophotography by Laurie-Rae Chamberlain on the Cannon NP Color Copier’When I saw this I thought Cannon with two double ‘n’ but that’s what it says on the back of the book.

Last week I mentioned Pan Fan Stuart down under in Melbourne had found another title with the PAN/Pavanne dual logo for me and then I found a couple more. They’ve all arrived and can be seen HERE. When I was looking for a copy of ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’ only one in Italy popped up so how come there’s suddenly several on eBay? Mind you I did only pay 5 euros including postage so a bit cheaper than this although this one does have free postage.I’ve also included another Wendorf title as I couldn’t find an image but as one of her titles was PAN/Pavanne I though the other might be. As usual I assumed wrong BUT I do like the stamp inside from a seller in Thailand.

I also bought a wallet off eBay because it had the magic words ‘PAN Books’ written in it albeit in biro.It has silver mounts hallmarked for 1907, made by Edward Langridge & Co. in Birmingham and is stamped J.B. – you don’t think it might have belonged to ……. !Inside it says D.Frankham with an address in Dummer near Basingstoke (where PAN’s headquarters are located) I contacted Alysoun, the archivist at PAN, on the off chance she might know this person. She didn’t but had bought her house off another Frankham as apparently it’s a common name round there. I’ll keep digging on this one.

Bit of a short one this week as tied up with my other current interest (Yes I know it’s hard to believe there is more to life than PAN’s) namely opening up a disused railway track for walking/cycling. We need to clean up under a bridge where the ground is covered in rubbish and about an inch of mud. We have been pottering around down there for a while but when we got a contractor in to give us a quote it became a ‘health and safety’ nightmare. We’re told we can’t do it because of Japanese Knotweed, sharps and other drug bits and pieces and if in the mud we must be tied to a line held by someone on the dry bank. We wish we hadn’t asked. Here is a 1937 photo of the track when the enterprising owner of it used it to lay a water pipeline alongside, from Lichfield to Walsall over Highbridge Bridge. What’s that about health and safety?