|
|
Post by franklinmarsh on May 4, 2017 10:45:32 GMT
Author Index to the Odhams Man's Book Series T-V
Trevanian, Brian
|
|
|
|
Post by Jojo Lapin X on May 4, 2017 10:50:25 GMT
Oh, I see. That is wrong, you know.
|
|
|
|
Post by franklinmarsh on May 4, 2017 11:03:44 GMT
That's why I mentioned it. I really hope the Odham's volume published it that way.
|
|
|
|
Post by Dr Terror on May 4, 2017 19:08:25 GMT
There's a lot of 23 books from the series for sale on Gumtree. £35, offers considered. They all have illustrated covers. |
|
|
|
Post by cromagnonman on May 4, 2017 19:40:34 GMT
That's why I mentioned it. I really hope the Odham's volume published it that way. No, no blame can be accorded Odhams for this. This is one of those errors which is entirely of my own making. But not being in the habit of plucking names out of the air in such circumstances I'm somewhat nonplussed now to understand how it came about. I definitely read it somewhere, only now I can't seem to rediscover exactly where. I must have been confident about the source as I saw no need to google Trevanian which would have revealed the mistake immediately. Very odd. The thing is, a lot of the original raw data came from am*z*n marketplace and many of the Odhams listings there misalign the accreditations with the featured titles. That's how Jack Couffer originally came to be erroneously credited with the authorship of STAIN OF SUSPICION. I can only presume that in the frenzy of data accumulation I must have misread McBain as Brian and noted it accordingly. Can't say I'm altogether convinced by that explanation myself but I'm unable to offer anything better at the present time. Anyway, I'm extremely grateful to FM and Jojo for pointing the error out and affording me the opportunity to recitfy it. For what its worth, in contrast with the vast majority of the authors featured in the series Odhams was unable to offer any accompanying author info with the publication of THE EIGER SANCTION.
|
|
|
|
Post by franklinmarsh on May 5, 2017 7:33:38 GMT
Damn! But good work for sorting it out CMM. I read The Eiger Sanction in paperback (passed on by my uncle to my dad). Never really got on with the film, and I really like Clint's stuff.
|
|
|
|
Post by cromagnonman on May 5, 2017 8:06:30 GMT
That was a splendid piece of work - the author index really bought home how popular some mid-list authors could be, in those days when there was such a thing. I hadn't twigged how many Michael Gilbert had contributed - an excellent writer, understated and never a front-runner. He only died a few years back, having gone into his '90's. I suspect the main reason he never attained greater success had nothing to do with the quality of the work, but more to do with the fact that he had few, if any, recurring central figures in his books. There's nothing like a series to get the writer's popularity and profile going, especially in these days of TV adaptation. John Lange of 'Binary' was Michael Crichton, wasn't he? I read this when I was at secondary school, and loved it. I also loved 'The Andromeda Strain', but didn't figure it was the same man until reading it somewhere (unless the mind is playing tricks again). I could always open another window and google it, but I'm on a roll... John Wainwright - read a couple and found them a bit stodgy for me. But lots of procedural detail, and I believe that was his secret as a long-time library fave. He was an ex-copper, a bit like Maurice Procter (though I prefer MP). James Mills 'A Report To The Commissioner' - if it's the book I'm thinking of, I couldn't have told you the author but it was another pre-pubescent fave as it was written in the manner of an official document with interviews, memos, etc. Not that unique a form I suppose, but when you're about 12 and never seen anything like that before - wow! Once again, a labour of love which is much appreciated by someone who is too bone idle to catalogue in such a manner, and has a kids first scooter he can't put off assembling any longer (it's the sprog's birthday at the weekend). You and FM have been especially interested and vocal supporters of this thread Pulphack and I appreciate these commentaries and the additional info both of you have supplied. No, you are not mistaken; the Mills book is written in the odd format of a series of statements and forms. Am grateful for the tip off regading Crichton. Would never have twigged it, not being a Crichton reader. In fact I think I've only ever read SPHERE. But I guess I should really read EATERS OF THE DEAD some time, it being a product of one of my favoured fictional territories and all. Did enjoy the film. |
|
|
|
Post by franklinmarsh on May 5, 2017 8:58:38 GMT
Robert Rostand's The Killer Elite was a vague basis for the Sam Peckinpah film. Rostand's version was originally published as Monkey In The Middle but changed to The Killer Elite to tie in with the film. The two haven't much in common, the book being based in England and using African characters rather than the Chinese of the film, but taxis are involved (black cabs in the book, yellow in the picture). The memories just keep flooding back!
|
|
|
|
Post by cromagnonman on May 5, 2017 14:29:55 GMT
One of the advantages of buying old books that have only ever had one previous owner, as I have done with so many of these Odhams volumes, is the uncontaminated window they afford into the very earliest lifetimes of the books themselves. And this can raise an interesting query or two. Case in point: as mentioned previously Odhams dispensed with issuing dust jackets on all MB volumes published from 1972 onwards, citing their committment to the maintenance of stable prices. Also, as noted before, the original owner of my set systematically bought every volume at the time of issue for a period of seventeen years straight. And the majority of copies I've bought still contain the stubs of the postal orders he purchased them with. My copy of volume 93, for instance, has a stub dated 11 January 1972. All these things being equal made it all the more of a surprise when the copies of volumes 91, 92 and 93 I bought arrived without the expected dust jackets. I knew that at least two of them had been issued because I'd already chanced upon a tatty faded example of 92 in a charity shop in Hove, and am*z*n marketplace had images displayed of 93. Well I've now invested the princely sum of an entire penny in one of these marketplace offers and the pleasing result of such reckless spendthriftery is shown below. Its a little scuffed and faded, but then aren't we all having knocked around the country for the past 47 years. I'm delighted with it anyway. It does pose the question though of whether every copy of vols 91 - 93 was originally issued with a jacket or whether Odhams was already scaling back on the use of them as early as 1971 in an attempt to alleviate costs. An interesting point to speculate upon anyway. Hopefully one that doesn't exceed the bounds of anal retentiveness.  |
|
|
|
Post by cromagnonman on Jul 14, 2017 22:52:28 GMT
I guess this is one really for you Pulphack (wherever you may be). You were the first to point out that not only were the authors of the funkiest of 60s thrillers basically all old geezers with similar backgrounds, but that they even shared a similar image. I'll admit I was dubious until I stumbled across this. This is the jacket flap photo of one John Franklin Broxholme - who was an editorial director at Odhams, would you believe it - taken from his first novel and the only one he ever published under his own name. Shortly afterwards he substituted a pen-name with a suitably Scottish burr to it, which seemed to him a guarantor of publishing success ala MacLean, Fleming and Hammond Innes: he might have been on to something too because the name he chose was Duncan Kyle.  Just compare the photo with the previously posted image of Desmond Bagley; the words "pod", and "peas" spring to mind, don't they?  |
|
|
|
Post by pulphack on Jul 15, 2017 10:31:28 GMT
I am stil here, CM, just lurking as there has been little time to gather bookish thoughts of late. Come to that, a quick perusal the other day revealed I've read very few books this year, which is most unusual. Hopefully this will change over the coming months.
Anyway, Duncan Kyle! Good gravy, I remember him... It's no surprise to me that all thriller authors looked like this. I remember all those old Companion Book Club inserts and the accompanying photos from my childhood all too well. Alastair MacLean - my childhood favourite - lacked the beard, as I recall.
So, the secret of why my career stiffed is finally revealed: I now have the receeding hairline, but I need to take up smoking and grow a goatee and tache combo. I have the hornrims now (my new glasses look the part, even if not strictly horn-rimmed). And I have grown to like tweed as I grow older, so maybe it's time for the t-shirts and jeans to be thrown out...
Success is - finally - inevitable...
|
|
|
|
Post by cromagnonman on Jul 15, 2017 11:41:47 GMT
I am stil here, CM, just lurking as there has been little time to gather bookish thoughts of late. Come to that, a quick perusal the other day revealed I've read very few books this year, which is most unusual. Hopefully this will change over the coming months. Anyway, Duncan Kyle! Good gravy, I remember him... It's no surprise to me that all thriller authors looked like this. I remember all those old Companion Book Club inserts and the accompanying photos from my childhood all too well. Alastair MacLean - my childhood favourite - lacked the beard, as I recall. So, the secret of why my career stiffed is finally revealed: I now have the receeding hairline, but I need to take up smoking and grow a goatee and tache combo. I have the hornrims now (my new glasses look the part, even if not strictly horn-rimmed). And I have grown to like tweed as I grow older, so maybe it's time for the t-shirts and jeans to be thrown out... Success is - finally - inevitable... Good old Pulphack; you are the one constant in a changing age. Reassuring to know you're still out there. And resigned to morphing into the requisite trilby wearing, smoke wreathed, tweed sporting persona too. Capital. All that's needed now is the adoption of a suitably Caledonian monicker, which Broxholme believed ensured success. Something along the lines of Tom Stornaway or Fergus Wrath should do the trick. Of course, it must be acknowledged that times have changed since Broxholme/Kyle's day and a distinctly piscine flavour to one's name appears to be what is demanded now to promise success beneath the Saltaire. The name Angus McStickleback should therefore guarantee fame and prosperity opening up before you like a sun flooded glen. |
|
|
|
Post by cromagnonman on Mar 29, 2018 11:49:33 GMT
Ive just finished reading KISS KISS, BANG BANG (HarperCollins 2017), Mike Ripley's nostalgic and affectionate overview of British thriller writing between the early 50s and the mid 70s. Its an entertaining and informative read, and while it makes no claims to being any sort of scholarly treatise it nevertheless delivers a useful service in disintering quite a number of books and authors that have been unfairly buried in out of print obscurity.
The reason for posting about it here though is that Ripley's self-imposed time parameters - bookended by the publication of CASINO ROYALE at one extreme and THE EAGLE HAS LANDED at the other - roughly encapsulates the publishing term of the Odhams Man's Book series. But even though Ripley acknowledges the importance of book club editions to the genre - they provided an economic half-way house between hardback and paperback publication which back then could extend to years seperating the two - he makes no specific mention of the Odhams series. This seems a strange oversight or omission considering that so many of the titles Ripley singles out for special praise were featured in it; books such as Clive Egleton's SEVEN DAYS TO A KILLING, Geoffrey Household's extremely odd DANCE OF THE DWARFS, Noel Behn's THE KREMLIN LETTER and Alan Williams' THE TALE OF THE LAZY DOG amongst many many others.
The sheer volume of name checks familiar to me from my Odhams researches reinforced my appreciation of just what a fantastic series the Man's Books was, how astute and discerning its editors actually were and what a marvellous resource it remains for afficianados of the golden age of British thriller writing.
|
|
|
|
Post by earldumarest on Jun 27, 2018 2:08:44 GMT
all the pictures are gone!
|
|
|
|
Post by cromagnonman on Jun 27, 2018 9:46:41 GMT
all the pictures are gone! Been on my - long - list of things to do for a while now. Please bear with me. I am working on it. |
|
