A Keith Scaife Taster plus …..

As I mentioned a few weeks back Keith Scaife was kindly looking out some of his original artwork for Jack Higgins covers and here is the first one. Keith writes;
“I was born in Hampshire in 1960 before moving up to Staffordshire where from quite an early age it was evident I would follow art as a career in some shape or form. I spent six years at college, first at Leek School of Art and Crafts getting a superb grounding in all aspects of art and design, then to Sunderland to study model making. In the mid 1980’s I produced a number of pre-production paintings for a proposed T.V. series ( which sadly never came to be ), but this then led me directly into book jacket illustration, working freelance for many of the major UK publishers”
I hope to include several more of Keith’s covers over the next few weeks.

I had a surprising email this week from Penguin asking for MY help! They had some original artwork by Neville Dear and wanted to return it. As I was the only useful link they could find they asked if I had contact details? I last met Neville in London in 2013 when I took down an email address but must have got it wrong as all emails bounced back but I did remember them saying something about the M4 and how long a journey it had been. After a quick search or two I located a Neville Dear in South Wales and rang. As luck would have it I got Neville’s wife first try but it wasn’t good news as Neville can no longer draw and paint as he is not at all well. I gave Penguin his number so hopefully they will get things sorted.

Here are a few of my latest additions. I had 4 of the 5 Piccolo ‘Picture Puzzle Books’ and have now managed to get a copy of the elusive number 5. I also mentioned in a past blog ‘Falling Through Space’ the US edition (with dedication to D M W) of ‘The Last Enemy‘ and have added it at the bottom of that page. Just when I though there couldn’t be that many more Daphne du Maurier covers I’ve found another, the TV Tie-in for ‘Jamaica Inn’ where you can hear the words being spoken.

…. and finally what will probably be a weekly item, a few bits and pieces added to the Golden Pan Awards page which eventually will have scans of all the covers of the featured titles.

PANs in Film etc.

I think, from his Facebook posts, Johnny Mains is working his way through the British Film Institute catalogue. He let me know about one I’d not heard of namely “Lunch Hour” starring Shirley Anne Fields. In one of the scenes she is in a post office where there are a couple of shelves of PAN titles plus a carousel with some more. I started to try and list them all but then thought I’d get a life instead. I did eventually work out the one in the carousel is “The Devil Never Sleeps“ by Pearl Buck. Click here to see a few more screen captures and feel free to make your own list.

Since I put on the page of Pamela Belle covers last week I’ve had a reply from artist Fred Gambino in the States and he is going to see if he can find the original artwork he painted for the 1994 edition of ‘Silver City’ Fingers crossed.

I’ve also heard back from Mike Pretty who gives an interesting insight into Raplh Vernon-Hunt amongst the following;
‘Yes, still working for the Eden Project, though thanks to the wonders of modern technology I’m working for them in Australia, having married again, this time to a Sheila.
I worked at Pan from 77-82, running Picador, reporting to Sonny Mehta. (I previously worked at Jonathan Cape, and Sonny claimed he hired me because I was presumably able to cope with Tom Maschler, which he couldn’t. I like to think I had other talents, though!) I knew Ken Hatherley, and other people you have mentioned, like George Sharp and Peter Tietjen (I remember him turning himself into Zaphod Beeblebrox for the launch of Hitchhikers Guide and blowing up his second head!). Also Dave Larkin, John Marsden, Jacqui Graham, Gary Day-Ellison, Geoff Mulligan etc etc. Expect I’ll be able to dredge up a few more names if I try hard, but it was over 30 years ago…
Ralph Vernon-Hunt was still MD while I was there. He had a disconcerting habit of farting loudly during meetings as I recall…he once called me a poof because I was wearing red shoes!
I was lured away from Pan to work with Carmen Callil at Chatto & Windus, but that’s another story.
I confess my interest in Pan books themselves these days wanes around the mid-60s, my youth in other words. In recent years I have amassed quite a collection of Pans (including a lot I bought the first time round, particularly the war books). I’ve even found a few in Oz, although the climate isn’t kind to cheap paperbacks, what with the heat, the damp and the termites.
I find your site most enjoyable.
Cheers, and more power to your blog.
Thanks for the kind words Mike.

Bits and Pieces

As a couple of titles ordered have not arrived yet I’m making a miscellany this week.

I see ‘Ian Fleming; A Personal Memoir’ by Robert Harling came out recently. I presume this is to cash in on ‘Spectre’ as Harling died in 2008. Harling was not only an author but also a typographer and designed the ‘Tea Chest’ font which is probably most well know from the Richard Chopping covers for Bond titles such as ‘Goldfinger’

PAN published four of Robert Harling’s novels over the years which were ‘The Paper Palace’, ‘The Enormous Shadow’, ‘The Endless Colonnade’ and ‘The Hollow Sunday’

While on the Bond theme and not quite PAN but Panther I’ve only just found out Christopher Wood died this year. He wrote the novelisation of the films of ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ and ‘Moonraker’ published by Panther. Just to be different here is the Dutch edition of TSWLM published by Bruna. It was only this week though that I discovered he wrote the ‘Confessions of …..’ books as Timothy Lea. I have to ‘confess’ that I do have a complete set of this series as they are supposedly set around here in the Midlands and I like the local references, well that’s my excuse anyway!

Another author published by PAN also died last month, namely presenter, newsreader and novelist Gordon Honeycombe. He wrote several books but only one ‘Neither The Sea Nor The Sand’ was published in 1971 by PAN.

Couple of page updates, another cover for ‘The King’s General’ added to the Daphne du Maurier page. This is the 1982 cover by ? and I can’t believe I’d missed it but then again it is very similar to the 1974 version. Thanks to my sister for that one.

I’ve added another cover added to the Derek Stowe page for a Panther numbered 565 from 1956 ‘Land Beyond the Law’ If anyone knows any other Panther or PAN covers by Derek that aren’t on his pages please let me know as Derek doesn’t have a list of his work.

….. and finally I was amused at a description on eBay for ‘Quick and Easy Chinese Cooking’ by Ken Low published by PAN in 1973 where under condition it says “page edges browned’ Now I’ve heard of cooking the books but …..!

‘The Maltese Falcon’ plus ….. assorted rodents!

While looking at the different book covers PAN produced for Dashell Hammett’s ‘The Maltese Falcon’ over several years I was reminded that the 1951 edition had a cover by Philip Mendoza. Surprisingly Mendoza was also the artist for the ‘Gulliver the Guinea Pig’ comic strip in the Playhour comic from the 50’s/60’s.

This made me search out some original artwork I had from Playhour but mine features ‘Harry Hamster’ and is by either Peter Woolcock or Colin Wyatt who both drew Harry.

This 1961 Annual frontispiece above shows Harry with Sammy Stoat and Wally Weasel. The ability to turn ones hand to whatever pays is something I really admire about a lot of the artists who painted covers for paperbacks be it coins, stamps, corporate brochures or even wine bottle labels!

I have found six different covers for ‘The Maltese Falcon’ including the film edition and one as a Hammett omnibus from Picador. Other PAN titles with covers by Mendoza include ‘The Great Impersonation’ by Phillip Oppenheim, ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ by H Ryder Haggard, ‘Valley of Fear’ by Arthur Conan Doyle and ‘Towards Zero’ by Agatha Christie.
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Footnote Unfortunately Peter Woolcock was knocked down and killed by a car in Bermuda last December but I’ve emailed Colin Wyatt so hopefully may have an answer to the burning question of the moment “Who painted Harry?”
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Update Just had a fantastically fast and very informative response to my email from Colin in which he says;
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Dear Tim,
Thanks for your interesting email. The artwork on the attachment you sent was done by Peter Woolcock. It was originally done as a black and white strip in Playhour sometime in the late 1950’s, but then coloured at a later date and reprinted. Peter did a lot of work for the young children’s comics for IPC at that time. This included Willow Wood, a two page strip in Playhour that featured Harry Hamster. . My first ‘Harry On His Own’ strip for Playhour was done in October 1960. I was member of the art staff on Playhour at the time, and I continued to do the strip on and off for several years. (I still have the original artwork for that first strip.)
You are right, Phil Mendoza was the original artist on Gulliver Guinea Pig, and he was superseded by an artist named Gordon Hutchings who did some truly marvelous artwork.
Your website sounds really interesting so good luck with it.
Very best wishes,
Colin.

Update Just had an email from Colin, since reading this blog, to say Peter Woolcock also painted ‘Gulliver the Guinea Pig’ and in fact the example I used was one by Peter and not Philip but since then I’ve done a recheck on sources and found a site that says it is by Gordon Hutchings!

“The Hills Are Alive ……….. with the sound of chuffing”

Just back from a very enjoyable ten days on the continent travelling around using ‘The Little Trains of Austria’ hence this rather brief blog. Looks like we had a narrow escape as I’ve just heard on the news that Germany reinstated border checks with it and Austria yesterday because of the refugee crisis. They must have had a lie in as luckily there was no sign at of anything at around 9:30 when we crossed.

I’ve returned to find I have successful located another one of the many Daphne du Maurier covers which I’ve tacked onto the bottom of her page. It is ‘The Progress of Julius’ and after my moan about not knowing what edition one would get from unhelpful sellers it turned out to actually be the one in the photo.

In the not quite PAN section I have a few more additions sent me from Tomislav in Croatia. He works as a beer salesman and as one of the most popular brands over there is PAN he gets bits and pieces.
I’m really disappointed in that I didn’t get a shot of the Sun Chemicals Inks Division at Ternat in Belgium. They bought out Coates Brothers who produced the ‘invisible ink’ for the puzzle series from Piccolo to which I’ve added a couple of new covers. We drove passed it and I didn’t manage to get a photo but though “Never mind, that’s what Google Streetview is for” BUT on Google all I get are views of lovely green fields. No wonder I hadn’t noticed it before when we’ve gone that way.

Finally I always like to leave my mark so I helpfully left all the computers in the hotel lobby in Liege logged into an excellent website.

Australian Special

I was going to try and tie this in with an Australian holiday but missed what sounded like a great idea namely “Picnic Day” on 1st August in the Northern Territory.

I’m going to look at three titles with an Australian link.

“Variable Winds at Jalna” was printed in the UK but only has prices on the back for Australia and Canada. On the front is a sticker I’ve seen before which I’m presuming was put on by an Australian distributor? Can anyone enlarge on that?
I found a website that said the cover was by Gordon King and I was really pleased as I have the original artwork but it is not signed. I contacted Gordon who wrote back to say it is DEFINATELY not one of his and he only did 4 of the 16 in the Jalna series.

I’ve not seen this Piccolo title on sale anywhere but in Australia so maybe it was one exclusively for there, the only Australian printed Piccolo I’ve come across. The cover is by Walter Cunningham who was born in 1910 in Surrey, England and emigrated to Australia in 1924. He joined the staff of John Sands in 1926 eventually becoming manager of the art department. He died in August 1988 at Mona Vale, New South Wales.

The last title was printed in Australia but on the back cover the only price says it was £1.75 in the UK. Is this a rare case of books being sent from Australia and priced here in the UK instead of the usual other way around? The cover looked like it could be by Paul Sample (Tom Sharpe covers) and so I emailed him to ask if he remembers doing it or if I’ve insulted him as well by implying it could be one of his. He replied very promptly to say;

Dear Tim
Yes, it is one of my illustrations, dating from the early 70’s……….I can remember drawing it, dip pen, ink and watercolour. I did quite a few bookjacket illustrations besides all the ones for Tom Sharpe’s books. Not all of the jackets were for Pan though.
Cheers,
Paul

Original Artwork from Alan Cracknell etc.

First blog since upgrading to Windows 10 – so far so good!

I mentioned in the last blog I was trying to contact an artist, namely Alan Cracknell, but no success so far but then again I may not have the right one. The artwork this time features his interpretation of that famous character form Enid Blyton “Mr Twiddle” in “Hello Mr. Twiddle” There were three titles in this series but only two were published by PAN under the Piccolo imprint who didn’t include “Don’t Be Silly Mr. Twiddle” I’ve also included a couple of his other Blyton covers. I’ll put on another piece of his artwork soon.Alan was born in Harrow in 1937 and attended art school before working as an illustrator in advertising in London eventually became freelance.
“His beautifully detailed artwork influenced by Russian Icons and Medieval miniatures incorporates Nursery Rhyme Characters, Flora and Fauna, Field names and Artifacts in a surreal manner into his work. Medieval meets Alice in Wonderland” (Bell Fine Arts)

I meant to include this cutting last month when it actually appeared but it went missing and turned up a bit ripped!Pan published three Morph titles under the Piccolo imprint where Tony Hart is shown on the covers but it is Peter Lord who is credited inside.

Mastering the beast before being let loose in the woods.

….. and finally, although this is probably ‘old hat’ to all of you and for once nothing to do with books I got around to having a ‘Segway Experience’ last week. I was quite pleased, for once, to be told off for going too fast around the corners but as I didn’t crash into anything or fall off I thought I’d mastered it pretty well!

Original Artwork plus Book Fair

This weeks original cover art work is by Gavin Rowe who trained at the Croydon School of Art and then at The Royal College of Art in Kensington. Since 1970 he has worked with many publishers including Faber, Hodder, Penguin, Pan, and Magi as well as being commissioned for BBC’s Jackanory series. He is well known for his ‘painterly’ jacket covers for paperback novels. Gavin lives in Sussex, and continues to work as a full time illustrator. I spoke to him on the phone last Thursday and hope to have more about his work in a later blog.

The annual Baddesley Clinton Book Fair to raise funds for the National Trust is on now, it started on Saturday and runs to next Saturday. As usual we were there as soon as it opens in case we miss ‘all the bargains!

It is not everyday that I get to buy books in the grounds of an 16th moated manor house but then again as a life member of the NT I am supposed to actually part own it – I think I’ll have the room over the entrance! There were tables everywhere, several I’ve not photographed including the storeroom where John, retired bookseller who runs the fair, let me mooch.

BC7 Here are our purchases and for once my wife has a bigger pile than me but that is down to buying larger books. The top three paperbacks shown are all in unread condition, the Steinbeck being by Brian Sanders with Alan Lee modelling on the cover and T12 ‘The Robe’ having a cover by Pat Owen. I have the original artwork for this but unfortunately not signed. T13 ‘The Fisherman’ is in the same style and that appeared in the Bonham’s auction catalogue of 1991 credited to Pat Owen so I’m 99% sure mine is as well. I think Pat is still with us living down on the South Coast but I have not managed to contact up to now. Amongst my others are several Piccolo titles plus some newer PAN’s with covers I liked.

A Miscellany of Barbara Cartland Bits and Pieces

Having found all the pictorial Cartland titles I had on my list I looked at other related bits and pieces I had including several autographed cards and letters. There was also a couple of photos and I decided to see which original book covers were shown.

On one of the blogs on ‘Today’s Inspiration’ I found the following;

“Earlier this week we learned from commentor Chad Sterling that Barbara Cartland refused to return any of the original paintings to Francis Marshall, instead framing them and hanging them on the walls of her mansion, which left Marshall feeling quite bitter. Ximena provides an eye witness confirmation of that sorry situation: “I once had tea with Barbara Cartland (possible title for an autobiography) and she had a whole wall with originals. They were a bit bigger than an A4, and so cool, all together like that, it made me really jealous.”

As Tom Watson pointed out in a follow-up comment, the practice of keeping illustrators’ originals under the assumption that the physical art was part of the purchase price of the reproduction rights was all too common for many decades – and rarely challenged by artists who feared rocking the boat and risking the loss of future assignments. From personal experience, (having had the experience many times in the early years of my career of not getting my original art back) I learned to always clarify the purchase terms of an assignment in writing up front”

I’ve put together a page HERE showing the covers including the one on the right behind her head which was not published by PAN. I’ve only gone for the obvious ones although I may try find some of the others from parts shown at a later time but I’ve not managed to identify the one at the bottom – any one know? Cartland was a staunched supporter of the St John Ambulance and a couple of the covers have links to that. I’ve also put on the truly awful PAN pink covers I threatened to do a couple of weeks ago!

I have been in contact with a cover artist who lives on a small island off the Scottish coast who wants to down size and travel so we have come to an amicable settlement regarding buying some PAN related original cover artwork she has. As it is quite a jaunt up there I’ve been lucky in that she had a visitor from Cambridge visiting who has kindly picked them up and I am collecting them from him this week. They will appear on the next few blogs.

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PAN Fans Club

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