JAMES BOND
FACT FILES

Part Four: The ‘White-Model’ series 1969-1971

By 1969 overall sales of the PAN James Bond paperbacks had reached a total of 25-million; but the number sold that year had dropped to 389,000 copies, the lowest annual figure since 1960. Sales of many titles were boosted by the release of the film tie-in edition of ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, which far outsold any other title with 117,000 copies sold in the UK by the end of the year.

With the departure of Sean Connery from the role of James Bond in 1967 paperback sales had halved from the previous year, and there were now no new Ian Fleming titles left to release. COLONEL SUN by Kingsley Amis (writing as Robert Markham) would become the first James Bond novel by another author and this was published as a PAN paperback on April 3, 1970. Kingsley Amis had previously written The James Bond Dossier under his own name in 1965. This critical analysis of the Bond novels was also published in paperback by PAN. In the same year Amis also wrote The Book of Bond, a tongue-in-cheek manual for prospective agents, using the pseudonym Lt.-Col. William (‘Bill’) Tanner. PAN also published this in paperback with a cover designed by Raymond Hawkey, who had also designed the clever reversible dust jacket of the Jonathan Cape hardback. PAN's COLONEL SUN paperback had sold 250,000 copies by July 1970, with ten Ian Fleming titles now having each sold over two-million copies since they were first published.

COLONEL SUN exists as a standalone novel and its paperback cover does not match the style of any of the other series available at the time, although it does feature the words ‘James Bond’ above the title and author (in the same font as the Raymond Hawkey and ‘white-model’ series). Its cover features a photographic representation of the eponymous villain and a small image of a white-tuxedoed figure reflected in Colonel Sun's spectacle lens, in what is clearly a faux gun barrel-type pose from the film series. British actor Vincent Wong (1928-2015) was photographed as Colonel Sun for the cover of the PAN paperback. Born in Jamaica as Vivian Warren Chen, Wong also appeared in seven James Bond films from 1962-2002, although he is only credited in Die Another Day (2002). Along with Burt Kwouk (1930-2016), Wong cornered the market in villainous Oriental characters in UK films and television series in a long career which began in 1958.

PAN had depleted their stock of several of the Bond paperback titles by 1969, which initiated another reissue of those novels which were coming to the end of their last print-run. Another factor which contributed to the reissue of the paperbacks with new covers was the upcoming introduction of decimal currency in the UK. Although decimalisation did not come into effect until February 15, 1971 new 5p and 10p coins were in circulation from 1968 in order to get the nation used to the new system. The new coins had the same size and value as their old shilling and florin (two-shillings) counterparts which were phased out, although still in circulation until the early 1990s. Everything for sale in the country had to be re-priced and new packaging printed. There was a transitional period lasting a few years where products existed with dual pricing so consumers were aware of the relative value of what they were buying.

The first wave of new PAN James Bond paperbacks issued in 1969 (with the black PAN logo) therefore had the price of 4/- (four shillings) and the new decimal equivalent of 20p printed on the back. Later printings with the colour PAN logo showed only the decimal price, which by 1971 had been increased to 30p. The PAN ‘white-model’ series was also the first to utilise the International Standard Book Number. The ISBN was introduced in 1970 as a nine-digit code which was assigned to each edition and variation (excluding re-printings) of a book. This later became a ten-digit code, and from 2007 was extended to thirteen digits.

The last remaining 2,000 copies of FOR YOUR EYES ONLY with the Raymond Hawkey cover had sold out in 1968, so this became the first title reissued in the new ‘white-model’ series in June 1969. Joined by CASINO ROYALE, LIVE AND LET DIE, MOONRAKER and GOLDFINGER in the second half of 1969. PAN retained Raymond Hawkey's innovative use of ‘JAMES BOND’ above the title and author that made the books instantly stand out among other paperbacks in the ‘squeaky’ revolving wire display-stands then seen in book stores and newsagents universally. The typography on the ‘white-model’ covers is identical to the earlier Raymond Hawkey series, except the word ‘BOND’ is now ranged to the full width of the page so the four letters are therefore slightly larger than the word ‘JAMES’.

The new FOR YOUR EYES ONLY cover features an unknown model as Judy Havelock, with other models portraying Vesper Lynd, Solitaire and Gala Brand. Model Vivien Neves portrayed Jill Masterton on the GOLDFINGER cover (seated in a chair from Maples & Co. Ltd, Tottenham Court Road; and wearing a Mary Quant gold body-stocking supplied by Nylon Hosiery Co., simulating the paint that kills the character in the novel), and also Tatiana Romanova on the cover of FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE.

The new covers did help to boost sales in some instances, with MOONRAKER, FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE, DR. NO and FOR YOUR EYES ONLY having a second printing with the same cover in December 1971. PAN Books updated their logo around this time, so the initial 1969 printings have the black PAN silhouette; whereas the later editions feature the colour logo. GOLDFINGER proved particularly popular in this series and had sold all 40,000 copies of the 21st printing (the only one with this cover) by the end of 1970. It remained out-of-print until 1972 when it was released again from the 22nd edition, this time in the first wave of the ‘still-life’ series from PAN Books.

FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, DR. NO and OCTOPUSSY were released between January and June 1970. THUNDERBALL, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE and ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE were still available as film tie-in editions during this period, which explains their absence from this series. However, the bibliography on the first page of each book in the ‘white model’ series does correctly acknowledge that EON are making, or have made, the sixth James Bond starring George Lazenby film from the title ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE - the only PAN paperbacks to do this. All three printings of the film tie-in edition of ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE were bound using earlier sets of pages from 1965, so no mention of George Lazenby was present, and only the Sean Connery films were acknowledged. Once again, these three titles were among the first batch to be re-released in 1972 with ‘still-life’ covers, as stocks were running low by the end of 1971. Except for the film tie-in series, it is interesting to note the character of James Bond is now visualised on a PAN paperback for the first time since the covers painted by Pat Owen in 1961. Unusually the anonymous male model depicting Bond is from THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS short story which also appears in the OCTOPUSSY anthology, and not a character from the title story itself. The focus of the other covers in this series is now on the ‘Bond Girl’. THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN features an unknown black model who is clearly not representing Mary Goodnight, who is the main female character in the novel. Presumably the model is supposed to represent one of the nightclub dancers briefly mentioned in chapter 10.

Model and actress Julie Crosthwaite portrayed Honey on the DR. NO cover (wearing a white bikini by Nelbarden), and later appeared alongside Tony Curtis in Take Seven an episode of the TV series The Persuaders in 1971. DR. NO was originally scheduled for publication in December 1969, but eventually released in June 1970. The Raymond Hawkey spider web cover had been in circulation since 1964, and the 20th printing in 1965 was incorrectly labelled as the 19th printing; and the 21st printing labelled as the 20th. This error continued with the ‘white model’ printings in 1970 and 1971; with the 22nd printing (with the Julie Crosthwaite cover) labelled as the 21st, and the 23rd labelled as the 22nd. The mistake was not corrected until the 25th printing in 1975 (with the ‘still-life’ cover) which meant that there is no 24th printing of DR. NO in existence, although technically this is the original March 1973 ‘still-life’ paperback which was incorrectly labelled as the 23rd printing.

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER followed in August 1970 with Tiffany Case (portrayed by Julie Crosthwaite in cow-girl attire from the Spectreville sequence of the novel) on the cover. Only 50,000 copies were printed of the ‘white-model’ cover making it one of the hardest to find on the second-hand market today. The final title in this series was THE SPY WHO LOVED ME which was published in March of 1971, with a cover depicting Vivienne Michel being overpowered by Sluggsy Morant. Ian Fleming's controversial 1962 novel was the first of the ‘white-model’ paperbacks to feature the new colour PAN logo. Those novels in the series which had a second printing in December 1971 also have the new logo. The original PAN Books logo was designed by Mervyn Peake (1911-1968) who is best known as the author of the Gormenghast series of books 1946-1956.

By the end of 1971, sales of the PAN James Bond paperbacks in that year was 258,000, the lowest annual figure since 1959, when only five titles were available. With GOLDFINGER out-of-print and LIVE AND LET DIE also selling out by the end of 1972, the ‘white-model’ series are now some of the hardest titles to find on the second-hand market; as most of the paperbacks were only printed once and therefore existed in smaller numbers in the marketplace in the early 1970s. In total only 730,000 copies of the ‘white-model’ covers were ever produced.

A much-needed boost came with the casting of Roger Moore as James Bond in 1972, which initiated a new printing of LIVE AND LET DIE. The film tie-in edition sold 240,000 copies which accounted for almost half the overall sales of all James Bond titles in 1973.

FACT FILES INDEX

FACT FILES - James Bond UK Paperbacks