The Vintage Art of Pan Books: 1950-1965

by Colin Larkin

Telos, out now

A lavishly illustrated guide to one of the golden ages of book cover illustration.

When you go to a bookshop – or nowadays more likely graze through pages in an Amazon search – you may be looking for something specific from an author or publisher. More likely, you’re looking for something that grabs your interest, and makes you stop and find out more. That’s the job of the cover designer, and as I noted in my review recently of DC Comics covers, their work can take various forms. It can be representative of the entire book, illustrating a specific scene, or just capturing the zeitgeist of the author’s intentions. (Of course, as we’ve all seen over the years, they can do the precise opposite and make you wonder if the artist had any conception of what the book’s about!)

Colin Larkin’s book works on two levels – it’s a glorious collection of art from a few decades back, and it’s also a history of that period. Growing up collecting books via secondhand book stores (there was one on the way I’d drop into every time I went to visit future Telos publisher David J. Howe!), these were the vintage that were often available, and flicking through the pages brought back a lot of memories. There’s a lot of covers from the 007 books (with credits for who the models were who “were” James Bond for those paintings), as well as assorted science fiction stories – and a lot of The Saint, Leslie Charteris’ Robin Hood of Modern Crime.

The text is also fascinating, acting as a history both of Pan Books but also of shifting mores and attitudes across this period. There are plenty of anecdotes from people now sadly deceased, as well as details on the process and the artists involved.

Verdict: Its author says it’s not an art book, but I’d disagree – it’s a celebration of artistic work that has often been overlooked. 9/10

Paul Simpson

Click here to order from Telos