Pelican Time.

(1963, cover design by Bruce Robertson.)

(1960, cover design by Larry Carter.)

(1965, cover design by Hakan Lindstrom.)

(1970, cover design uncredited.)

I always promise myself that, one day, I’m going to find time to read all of the Pelican paperbacks cluttering up my shelves, becoming a man of great (if somewhat dated) wisdom in the process, my mind fully engorged with the collected knowledge and opinion of British academia as it stood circa 1960.

Never happens though – instead I just look at the covers, and pile them on top of all the lurid crime books to make the place look a bit smarter.

To ease the heft of this blog’s current summer downtime therefore, I thought I’d spend a few posts sharing some of my favourites with you, beginning with the above selection – volumes about which I have no particular comment, having not read them. But don’t they look splendid?