We popped down to the Isle of Wight for the weekend, mainly to cycle the Island Cycle Route (we're getting in training for the London to Brighton bike ride in June); but while there we stumbled upon Wight Elephant, a fantastic little bric-a-brac shop in East Cowes.

A quick browse round the store turned up Roger Manvell's Film. It's one of the earlier Pelicans, from 1944, featuring the striped grid from the Penguin Special series, Edward Young's Pelican logo, and a still from Alexander Nevsky. (Check out more on the early Penguins in Phil Baines' excellent Penguin By Design.)

We particularly like the author's biography:

Born 1909. Graduate and Doctor of London University. Vowed not to publish a book before he was thirty, and did not find this as difficult to keep as it might seem... Hopes that this book will be the first of many on the cinema. Is working now for the Government in the distribution of substandard* war films.

*We thought this might be a little bit too comic for a serious book, so we checked the glossary. Turns out Substandard was a technical term for 16mm film, as opposed to the Standard 35mm.

Oh, and check out AceJet170 for a fine selection of 1960s Pelicans.