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Once upon a time (no, this isn't a fairy tale), I could tell you exactly which shop I'd bought any comic, toy, or book from, but as I get older, I sometimes find myself struggling to remember whether some items were purchased in this shop or that shop, or just what the hell shop was it again? This can be caused by the similarity of the layouts of certain newsagents in my youth, causing me in later years to be unsure which one it was. Why I'd completely forget in some cases is harder to explain, but perhaps it's just the onset of old age.
However, there's not the slightest bit of uncertainty in the case of this book, the PAN paperback of DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, which I got from R. S. McCOLL's in the shopping centre of my home town. This would've been either 1973 or '74 (once, I could have told you the precise year, but that bit of info is yet another victim to the passing of the years), and there it was, staring at me from the paperback spinner-rack next to the one sporting the comics. It hadn't been too long since I'd seen the movie in my local cinema, so I immediately grabbed it and ran out of the shop (only kidding) up to the counter and paid for it. I just loved the cover so had to have it.
Anyway, just received the replacement you see before you this very morning (only 43 or 44 years after buying the first one I owned), so thought I'd share it with you here. I haven't read the book again in all that time, so might re-read it before very long. One look at the front and back covers places me back in that long-vanished R. S. McColl's and I feel as if I'm a teenager again. Some memories are forever!
4 comments:
Never saw the Pan edition before. In the US, Bantam published a paperback movie tie-in edition in 1971, with the same illustration (the movie poster) on the front cover.
Generally, I don't usually remember where I bought a particular item. In the sixties, there were a lot of newsstands, drug stores, and grocery stores that sold comics, and I never kept track of what came from where. In the 1980's, there were various specialty shops. In some cases, I THINK I remember, e.g., "I bought Avengers #88 and Hulk #140 when they were new, at our local Rexall, and I bought a used copy of Brave & Bold #65 at Collector's World in 1992." But, even then, my memory could be playing tricks.
Thing is, TC, I never tried to remember where I bought things, I just did. Things must've made an impression on me I guess.
That cover was a a great Bond poster by Robert McGinnis, in the tradition that he started on Thunderball. Have you got the art book "The Art of Robert McGinnis"? Well worth getting.
Back in the seventies, my pal Geoff and I managed to get all of the Pan film tie-in editions of the James Bond films going from Dr No up to Live and Let Die. Great covers all.
I've got a large-sized book with all the Bond movie posters up until Die Another Day, B, and it's great to look through from time-to-time. I've got quite a few of the Pan tie-in editions - Dr. No, FRWL, Goldfinger, Thunderball, YOLT, DAF, Live & Let Die, MWTGG, and perhaps Moonraker - can't quite remember. Great covers indeed.
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