Following on from my recent post about James Herriot I came across a edition on eBay from Canada. The seller said it was PAN but gave no ISBN so I posted a question to ask but got no reply and the sale has now ended. Does any one recognise it as being published by PAN?

UPDATE I have now spoken to the seller and they say they can’t find it anymore!

Just back from our annual jaunt up north to do another 15 miles walking the ‘Yorkshire Wolds Way’ (we should finish it in about 3 years at this rate !) and this time we made an excursion to the market town of Thirsk in North Yorkshire. I had found a reference on the BBC ‘History Of The World’ site to there being a Golden PAN Award belonging to James Alfred Wright, better know as James Herriot, in the ‘World Of James Herriot’ museum in the town so a visit became a priority. I contacted Ian Ashton, the MD, and he kindly got the award out of safe storage as it is not normally on display. I could not only see one at last close up but best of all I actually got to hold it. Thanks to all at the museum which is  well worth a visit with room after room of fascinating material.

 Click this link to go to the James Herriot Golden PAN Award
Click this link to see other other Golden PAN Award authors

Good news this week in that I’ve had confirmation, via Virginia Lee who contacted her husband Alan Lee in New Zealand on my behalf, that the artwork I have for a PAN book cover is by him. The next task is now to see if I can get him to sign it when he returns later in the year.
The book is ‘Devil Country’ by Donald G. Payne writing as Ian Cameron and is the sequel to ‘The Lost Ones’ ‘The Lost Ones’ is probably better know as Disney’s  ‘The Island At The Top Of The World’
Interestingly ‘Devil Country’ was originally called ‘The Mountains At The Bottom Of The World’ but was renamed in the PAN edition, did Disney have anything to do with this I wonder?
I couldn’t see an artists name on the cover of ‘The Island At The Top Of The World’ but then realised that it was the same as the film poster by Brian Bysouth. I’m trying to contact him to ask him a couple of questions about this.

I shall be adding an Alan Lee page shortly as he produced several covers for PAN.

No blog last week as I was camping in Hampshire and stayed away from the internet which was by choice and not because I couldn’t get it. It was a disappointing area as far as second-hand bookshops went but there did seem to be a plethora of titles from the “Bestsellers Of Literature’ series in charity shops.

I managed to find one connection to the area and PAN Books in that Ian Fleming was stationed in Littlehampton and there is information about his time there in the museum and another at the ‘Look and Sea’ centre where I saw, just lying on a windowsill, a PAN copy of ‘Thrilling Cities Part 1’ along with three Granada titles. There was also an audio display about Fleming but as someone had vandalised the earphones I have no idea what it said!

In the 1970’s Peter Tietjen was working at PAN (at the same time as Ken Hatherley) and he came up with a design for a “self-erecting piece of display material that was going to completely revolutionise in-store book displays”

I found the following on an Australian website;

DISPLAY UNIT – 198704242
DESIGN DETAILS
Owner: Pan Books Ltd Designers: Peter Tietjen Description: DISPLAY UNIT Statement: Monopoly is claimed in the shape and/or configuration of a display unit as illustrated in the accompanying representations. This page contains all relevant details related to design number 198704242. This design was lodged on 18/11/1987 and has a status of Currently Not Renewed. The owner of the design is registered as Pan Books Ltd They used the attorney firm Griffith Hack to file this. The design was registered on 15/12/1988 and has been renewed to 18/11/1993

I’ve tried to contact Peter but no luck so far. Does anyone know if it actually “revolutionised” displays as we know them?

Having returned from Gran Canaria this week I have to say I was very disappointed. Not in the place or the weather but in the lack of book shops of any sort let alone second hand ones. A church jumble sale and a couple of Sunday market stalls also proved fruitless.

On a more positive note my ‘overseas agent’ Bazeer Flumore who I’m sure you don’t need reminding runs the excellent PizGloria website did at least spot some PANs at the annual Clunes Book Fair but unfortunately not those the two elusive titles I’m after.

I was pleased to see the copy of “Return Of The Tiger” in the box as I have the original artwork for this cover and it has been displayed on the sidebar for a little while.

As I’ve noted before PAN didn’t seem to go in for branded merchandise as much as other publishers like Penguin but I do have a couple of examples that I’ve unearthed. The first is a shoulder bag and the second a Stratton powder compact. Were these given away or did they have to be paid for and has anyone any other examples we can add?

As I’ve mentioned before Alan Bott and his wife were great friends with Hugh Walpole and often stayed with him at his house “Brackenburn Lodge” in the Lake District. In 1941 Walpole dedicated two of his publications to Alan. The first was number 9 in the MacMillan War Pamphlets series of 15


The second was “The Blind Man’s House” dedicated to both Alan Bott and his wife Josephine (nee Blumenfeld)

It was while at Brackenburn Lodge near Keswick that Walpole wrote his quartet the “Rogue Herries Chronicles”

On a different subject my daughter bought me a Kindle for my birthday and she was surprised at how pleased I was. I had to admit it was because it has wi-fi and my phone doesn’t so I can now check up on all those covers I’m never quite sure of, buy and then find I already have several (as long as there’s a McDonalds close by)

Alan Bott joined the Royal Flying Corps as a member of the 70th. Squadron (Umpty Squadron) in April 1917.  He was credited with 5 ‘kills’ during the time he was in France. It was after he joined the 111th Squadron that Captain Bott crashed in the desert on April 22nd. and became imprisoned by the Turks. He later  wrote about his escape to Constantinople in Eastern Flights which had earlier been serialised in several publications notably Harper’s Monthly Magazine where it appeared in 5 parts from September 1919. The ‘crash’ was featured in a painting by Stuart Read which is currently in storage at the Imperial War Museum in London. He continued to fly and in 1928 he got his certificate of competence from the Hampshire Aeroplane Club.
   

Statue used as model for PAN Award

Since the 1960’s PAN has awarded a statue of the god Pan to authors who’s books sell over a million copies. The  award is based on a bronze statue from Southern Italy in the British Museum. Amongst the recipients of this award are Russell Braddon for “The Naked Island“, John Le Carre for “The Spy Who Came In From The Cold” , Otto Frank on behalf of Anne Frank for “The Diary Of A Young Girl” and more recently Douglas Adams for “The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy” and several for Wilbur Smith.

John Le Carre with his Golden PAN Award

Wilbur Smith with several Golden PAN Awards

Douglas Adams with his PAN Award

Otto Frank receiving his daughter’s Golden PAN Award.