Last week I posed the questions as to what might be the link between the M6Toll and PAN? Well the answer is Mills and Book, the publishers of romantic fiction founded in the UK in1908. They had an informal arrangement with Harlequin (Canada) up to 1971 when Harlequin bought Mills and Boon. Back in the 1950’s Harlequin jointly published 11 titles with PAN which can be seen HERE Note to self – yet another page where they all need to be scanned at a higher resolution..

One  example ‘The Four Just Men’  can be seen above on the back cover of this brief history which unfortunately, as I mentioned before, makes no reference as to why these 11 titles apart from listing them.

To finally answer the question the M6Toll surface contains over 92,00 pulp paperbacks per mile of which about 45,000 are Mills and Boon titles that were returned as unsold etc. Apparently it gives a springier surface, good job is was soft romance  and not hard core fiction! When we were visited by M6Toll staff recently who gave us money for our track clearing I asked if this was true and they said “Yes, 100%”

While sorting out bits and pieces on a shelf I came across an unopened package which turned out to be a 1975 proof copy of ‘Valley of Fear’ by Arthur Conan Doyle. I can’t remember where or when I got it which is most unusual as although I can’t remember things that happened yesterday, I can usually recall something about all my acquisitions. I’m not getting old am I?

Hopefully this blog will have launched itself as we are down in Kent staying with my son, his wife and the little one on the way. We have a list of National Trust properties to visit as most of them have second hand bookshops plus I haven’t added any thing to the ‘PAN Books as seen in NT properties’ for quite a while. Fingers crossed.
Next week I have a return visit planned to the home of a late artist. I’ve visited before but this time something has changed and I’ll say what if I am allowed later.
The week after that is a visit to a relative of a very famous, but unfortunately also late artist who’s name appears on literally hundreds of book covers.
I’ll post updates after the visits.

QUICK UPDATE Just spotted that Richard Booth died last Monday aged 80.
“Mr Booth’ King of Hay-on-Wye’  helped the border town become renowned for its book shops. The renowned Hay resident once owned the largest second-hand bookshop in Europe, and was crowned with an MBE. He was a determined entrepreneur who persevered in his quest to create a book town. Mr Booth even resorted to such stunts as his 1977 declaration of independence for Hay in which he proclaimed himself King and his horse was made Prime Minister” (Extract from local paper)

Looking at later Steinbeck editions from around 1970 I find I have eight with similar style covers some of which are signed John Walsh. I am going to presume they are all by him but does anyone know if there are any others I’ve missed? Also if anyone has an information on this particular John Walsh I love to hear it as the two artists with that name I’ve found so far are not him.

A while ago I wrote about artist Derek Stowe who painted for PAN and also Panther and included all the Panther covers Derek could remember plus a few I found. So I was really pleased last week to spot a Panther cover with a very small but familiar signature which did turn out to be one of Derek’s, namely ‘The Unfair Sex’ by Nina Farewell from 1960. I managed to get a very nice copy which doesn’t appear to have been read. I haven’t been in contact with Derek for a little while so I have used this as an excuse to send him an email, fingers crossed for a reply. To see it you need to scroll to the bottom of his page.

It was just one of those times where you flick through Twitter and suddenly see something of interest and so it was with the cover of the latest album from Anthony Reynolds, ‘A Painters Life’ I emailed Anthony and he kindly sent me a signed postcard that goes with the album as a pastiche of a familiar style. Interestingly it has X236 on the cover which is of course …..?

Anthony came back with an offer for a copy of the LP too good to miss. Click HERE to see the album cover painted by David Roach. I was wondering if this was the same David Roach who painted for Marvel Comics and Anthony confirmed it was. I was hoping to have played it by now but unfortunately the needle on my music centre looks in need of some TLC and I don’t want to damage the vinyl. Maybe next week.

…and finally I’ll leave you with a question for which I’ll give the answer next week. Wearing my other hat I have on when clearing the disused railway track we were recently given £1,500 for a storage container by the company that runs the M6 Toll Road. What is the connection with the M6 Toll and PAN books? No prize, just a feeling of smugness if you get it.

If you’ve not discovered them yet, it’s worth hunting out Jules Burt’s videos on ‘YouTube’ He is a fellow PAN collector whom I’ve know for a long time and who also collects many other publishers especially Penguin.
Here are links to some that have a PAN element including ones on The  Beatles, Agatha Christie,  James Bond and James Bond related titles. There are more, just go to YouTube and subscribe to make sure you don’t miss them.

Jules also has a video on ‘Star Wars’ pop-up books from Random House which made me look out any pop-ups from PAN and I found I have six under the Piccolo imprint. Two are in the larger format from 1981 and four small ones from 1983. They were made in Colombia like nearly all the pop-up books at the time, wondering if they still make as many today? Click HERE to see them.

Last week and this week is that time again when the National Trust holds its annual book fair at Baddesley Clinton. We try and get there on the first day, the Saturday, but due to commitments we didn’t make it until Monday but still managed to spend some money. Mostly duplicates but in better condition with the originals probably going back to a NT property with a book shop later in the year. Surprisingly my wife spent exactly three times as much as me which went someway to boosting the takings which were up to £3,5000 after only two days.

Having mentioned prolific book cover artist Hans Helweg several times I am now pleased to be able to tell something of his life and to include as many examples of his art as I can.

I am currently working my way through a list and re-scanning the many PAN covers listed by Hans with date and how much he was paid plus it includes a few titles that aren’t PAN. So far I have managed to track down one as a Panther and one as an illustration in the magazine John Bull. Looking forward to finding more. I am also scanning the dozens of printer’s proofs that Sue lent me so I can get them back into her safe keeping as soon as possible.

Click HERE to read what I have included so far, I especially like the story of his early film appearance. Don’t miss the links at the bottom to see many examples of Hans work in all fields.

It has been interesting researching Candy Barr as I don’t think the three titles published by PAN are by the same lady who crops up when you Google the name (see above). I had to tell the wife it was for research purposes – honestly! Then I found a Google snippet that speculated it was Caroline Bridgwood but again no definitive proof until I actually read the printing history inside the book where it says ©Caroline Bridgwood! Click HERE to see the three covers.

A while ago I put on several versions of the Colleen McCullough title ‘Tim’ but annoyingly one was a very bad image from the net. I have now got a copy to scan and have added it to the page. It the really boring one with just the word ‘Tim’ on a white background.

I have also got a couple of omnibus editions of ‘The Herries Chronicle‘  by Hugh Walpole in that uses the same photographs as the individual titles.

As I mentioned last week I had a visit planned for the Monday and I’m pleased to say it came to fruition. We travelled down to Hay-on-Wye on the Sunday in the camper and parked up at a lovely site just five minutes walk from the centre of Hay. Although it was Sunday the majority of the bookshops were open (unlike places to eat!) I was prepared to be disappointed and so I was not disappointed when I was if that makes sense? Several shops I remembered had gone, a lot are selling remaindered stock and a few actually have vintage paperbacks. I was really pleased, in the Cinema Bookshop, to pick up five Mazo de la Roche titles that look as though they have never been read. They were £3 each which was about three times what I like to pay but as they were so good even my wife told me to go ahead and buy them.

Monday’s visit was to meet up with Sue, widow of artist Hans Helweg, at her fantastically located mill cottage. She was really welcoming and still has a lot of pieces relating to Hans kept in his studio the roof of which can just be seen behind the section with the wooden conservatory. There is a bridge over the brook and the foreground is in Wales and the cottage in England.

Sue was interested to see the two Mazo de la Roche covers that Hans had painted as she’d not see them before (‘Whiteoaks’ and ‘Finch’s Fortune’) We found ‘Whiteoaks’ in the ledger Hans kept and it looks like he got paid £42 for it.

She also had hundreds of printers proofs of covers which show that Hans painted over 250 for PAN many of which I didn’t know were his. She has also lent me notes on Hans life and I’ll put together a section for him including some of that material.

Finally, and not Hans related, but strangely linked I received a comment from Kathy, Sam Peffer’s neice who had just noticed back in 2014 I mentioned after a computer crash I had lost her contact details. We have now remade contact and I’ll be arranging a visit to see her very soon.

This week there are three links to authors whose books were printed in Australia although not all Australians. I’ve added only the Australian printings to their pages and which feature the PAN Man logo (except one from Richard Hall added just for completeness)

Paul Mann grew up in Northumberland in the 1950’s and became a journalist travelling the world. He now resides in the USA. 

Robert Barrett was an Australian and published several titles featuring his detective ‘Les Norton’

Richard Hall was also a winter and journalist travelling extensively.

The above is just because I found it on the shelf and is an Australian printing!

Short and sweet this week as travelling around in the camper but hopefully interesting news next week if a planned visit comes about.

When we were down in the PAN archives I snapped away at different bits and pieces and here is one of them. A poster to announce an event for the launch of the three new look logos.

I’ve been trying to get a 1989 copy of ‘The Borribles’ (as above) for quite a while so when I saw one listed as 1989 (unfortunately no photo and a seller who always says they have too much stock to check a cover!) I went ahead and ordered it. When it arrived I was really annoyed to find it was the 1983 edition but then I opened it.

Not quite as annoyed now and not bad for a penny plus postage. The seller must have missed it as they never mentioned it. Maybe that is an advantage of buying from a bulk seller, ‘stack ’em high and sell ’em cheap’
Apparently the Bridge Lane Theatre was in Battersea and was demolished in 1994 to be replaced by houses.

When Alysoun, from the PAN Archives, called in to see Gordon Young to record his memories of his time on the Laloun he gave her the actually flag that flew from the mast over 70 years ago. It is now in the Archives and I took a photo of it.

Back in January I mentioned how I was contacted by James Seabright, who organises Adam Kay’s tours, to tell me Adam had been awarded a Golden PAN and did I want a couple of tickets for a show?  We plumped for Dudley and went last Friday. I was impressed when I went to the box office to pick up the tickets that they were there all by themselves taking pride of place on the shelf. We had a very enjoyable evening, I think Jackie had the advantage in not having read the book, so didn’t know some of the anecdotes. I took my copy of Adam’s book for him to sign and I congratulated him on his award and to my amazement ‘he said he had looked at my site. Unfortunately there was a long queue so we didn’t have time to talk further. I did get a couple of photos which I’ve added to the page so if you scroll down you’ll find the updates HERE

A while ago, on a Facebook group for vintage paperback collectors, someone mentioned G321 ‘Tales of Mystery and Imagination‘ by Edgar Alan Poe and that there were several variations. I had two but this made me look again and I have since found four. Does anyone know if there were any more?

Not quite PAN but I’m always amused by the variety of covers from different publishers for the same title especially for ‘The Stone of Chastity‘ by Margery Sharp. I was particularly taken with the Avon edition which is certainly a little more eye catching that the PAN edition. I’ve put four variations on a page HERE just for interest.

Finally nothing to do with PAN but we have just got £14,000 to repair a bridge and build steps and a cycle channel up to the disused railway track we are making into a Greenway plus we have Gwyneth McMinn, Head of Network Development at SUSTRANS, coming on Thursday to see what we’ve been up to. Maybe we can convince her that this does need to be made in an official cycle track.