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UK 60's Book Club Editions

ColonelAdamskiColonelAdamski UK
edited March 8 in Literary 007 Posts: 1,103
I don't think there's a thread on this. Has anyone got any of the 60's UK Book Club editions? I think they're quite unique as they featured original artwork. These are the four I have, and I think there was a fifth - For Your Eyes Only?
Does anyone know more about these? I think the Book Club was a mail-order publisher that advertised in magazines and newspapers. You joined the book club, and the books were budget priced.

bk1.jpg

My copies are a little battered I'm afraid, but they have their dust jackets.

bk2.jpg

bk3.jpg

bk4.jpg

bk5.jpg

The artwork continued onto the spines.

bk6.jpg

If the moderators think this shouldn't be a new thread, and should belong to an existing thread, can I politely ask that they move this post, rather than simply closing it please. Thankyou.

Comments

  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited 2:31pm Posts: 18,505
    I have most of these now. There were also ones for LALD, DAF, FRWL, DN, GF, FYEO and TSWLM. Book Clubs were very common back then and popular too as they were cut price editions of new books. Book Clubs were eventually outlawed I think in the late 1990s/early 2000s as they were deemed a restrictive trade practice along with the NET Book Agreement. This was because customers had to keep buying books each month whether they wanted them or not. They mostly had very nice cover art though, although the one for LALD was just a generic cover from The Reprint Society which was owned by the same man who set up Pan Books.
  • ColonelAdamskiColonelAdamski UK
    Posts: 1,103
    I'd be interested to see the covers of the others. I might have seen them before, but it not registered that they were Book Club editions.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited March 8 Posts: 18,505
    This link from an auction shows all of the covers (including the one for Colonel Sun):

    https://bid.omegaauctions.co.uk/auction/lot/44-james-bond---the-book-club-editions/?lot=42547&sd=1

    Most of the John Gardner Bond continuation novels had Book Club editions as well though they had the same cover art as the UK first editions.
  • ColonelAdamskiColonelAdamski UK
    Posts: 1,103
    Thanks Dragonpol. I have the Colonel Sun one, and I think I may have to hunt out the Spy Who Loved Me one.
    That's interesting information you put up about the book clubs being outlawed.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited March 8 Posts: 18,505
    ColonelAdamski wrote: »
    Thanks Dragonpol. I have the Colonel Sun one, and I think I may have to hunt out the Spy Who Loved Me one.
    That's interesting information you put up about the book clubs being outlawed.

    I have them all apart from DAF, DN, GF and FYEO. I did see GF once in the wild many years ago but it had a badly ripped dust jacket so I passed on it. Never seen it anywhere since. I'll probably have to get the rest from eBay. I love the Colonel Sun cover. It's really good.

    I think I'm right in saying that about the book clubs anyway. I know you don't get them any more and I believe that's why. There was a Restrictive Practices Court at one time in the UK and I believe it ruled them unlawful along with the NET Book Agreement which governed book pricing for nearly 100 years.
  • RichardTheBruceRichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.
    edited 2:34am Posts: 14,164
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    This link from an auction shows all of the covers (including the one for Colonel Sun):

    https://bid.omegaauctions.co.uk/auction/lot/44-james-bond---the-book-club-editions/?lot=42547&sd=1

    Most of the John Gardner Bond continuation novels had Book Club editions as well though they had the same cover art as the UK first editions.
    37708-6-medium.jpg?v=63827703613827

    I enjoy all those UK book club edition covers except maybe Live and Let Die, which at one time I searched out and still possess for lack of a US hardcover book club edition.

    So much better than the cookie cutter approach the US book club editions had. It's surprising and impressive to me UK book club editions could use the original Richard Chopping or Dr No covers and original covers of the Gardner books.
    512036_l.jpg?ts=1711562282
    31737012495.jpg
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited 3:17pm Posts: 18,505
    I have TMWTGG from that set, published by the New American Library. I got it three years ago in a second hand bookshop, minus the dust jacket, for £4. I had thought it was a first edition but I think they were published by Macmillan and some other publisher later on? I'm not really as familiar with the Fleming US editions as they're much harder to find here in the UK.

    I had a lucky find in a B&Q charity bookshelf a while back when I bought a few non-Bond Book Club editions and found the World Books Broadsheet promotional leaflet for the upcoming LALD inside one of them. It was written by Richard Usborne of Clubland Heroes fame. I was gladly able to place it inside my LALD Book Club edition as a nice little extra.
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