Although I have had a link to artist Neville Dear and a photo for quite a while I’ve not actually shown any of his covers. Now I’ve added a couple of PANs, ‘Fiddlefoot’ being signed (as are the two Corgi covers) but I’m including ‘Place Called Estherville’ as Neville told me it was one of his although I can’t spot a signature.
It is strange but I may forget important events and dates but I rarely forget from where I got a book especially if it was a shop. There is probably a name for this sort of thing but I think I’d rather not know. ‘Fiddlefoot’ was bought from a dealer on the net but ‘Place Called Estherville’ was from a cabinet outside Shakespeare and Company in Paris where Ernest Hemingway was supposed to have slept on the bookshelves!

I had a recent enquiry from a fellow PAN Fan Jem who asked about PAN Pipers specifically MP67 “Australia:Her Story” (MP because it cost 5/-) and XP67 “Enemy Of Rome” (XP because it cost 3/6) and who wondered why PAN had used the same number for both titles?

This is a mistake on PANs part in that XP67 should really be XP70.

Whitakers Paperbacks In Print Winter 1965/66

If XP67 had been incorrectly labelled as ??47 (anyone know what it is?) then it might be a more understandable mistake.

This weeks blog will appear when a cat has stopped having kittens under our bed – and it’s not even our cat!

UPDATE Just one kitten but very sweet. Looks like it has got its colouring from all of the four possible fathers!

Life Size

After putting the Bonham’s original PAN artwork auction catalogue on recently I thought I would follow it up with another catalogue from around the same time. I borrowed it off fellow Pan Fan Jules Burt and I have scanned it in to make a Flash book. This sale was in response to the Bonham’s one in that it was actually the artists themselves, namely Sam Peffer, Pat Owen and Edward Mortelmans, selling their artwork at an auction run by Simon Marsh-Devine in Bristol around the end of 1991. The catalogue is a photocopy and so the images are a little dark but with the listings I think most of them can be identified. Of note are the Peffer covers for several Fleming titles which I am told are now all owned by the Fleming family, can anyone confirm this?

I recently ended up buying my own Christmas present which doesn’t seem quite right but if you want to be sure you get what your after then it’s the only way.
This time it was the original artwork for the cover of the 1982 edition of ‘The Chequer Board’ by Nevil Shute painted by George Sharp. We think George painted 22 of the 23 Shute titles apart from ‘A Town Like Alice’ which may only of had a TV tie-in cover but if you know better please let me know especially those in Australia.
I have several pieces of original artwork mostly around the 12″ by 15″ size but I’ll let you guess what size my latest piece is? To find the answer just click on the picture below.

I sent a message to Tony Knight via his site and he replied that he is very happy for me to publish this (spoof?) item although I’m not sure all the other people mentioned would agree! I am also very grateful to Tony for sending me several example of the ‘Invisible Ink Puzzle Books’ as they are very few and far between and even better most of them still have their pens attached!

I have put together a page to show the PAN/Piccolo related artwork that Val produced over many years. The page can be found by clicking on the Artists etc link at the top of this blog or by choosing More and then Artists from the main website or click here.
Dear Tim,
Wow! What a fine display of my work! So many of my Pan covers, and also my Pan Gumdrops! It is all put together beautifully, including the photos you took in my studio. Thank you for your interest, and your skill!
Very best wishes,
Val