UK Nancy Drews - Format E

UNITED KINGDOM

FORMAT C - "ONE STAR"

I like to call this style "one star" becuase of the single star at the base of the spine which houses the volume number. This is to easily distinguish it from Format D "multi-star." This format features the new Nancy Drew logo in dramatic lettering on a red-to-yellow gradient. The illustration is quite stylized and spills out from a circle or half-circle.

Most of the covers appear to be executed by one artist, whose name never indicated. On these covers, Nancy usually has a shag haircut and there are abstract symbols representing different facets of the storyline. This artist's style is very easy to identify. A few of the covers from this period have been done by a different artist (also unattributed) and are more representational and illustrate a scene from the story - they are not as stylized and often the perspective is somewhat distorted. Nancy often appears harsh and ugly in these - can you tell I don't like them as well?

There is a variety of banners which appear on the covers, including: "A Thrilling Mystery," "An Exciting Adventure," "A Thrilling Adventure Story" and "Another Thrilling Mystery Story."

The "one star" books have a spine which is a solid color with a single star containing volume number at the base. Some volumes came with both white background and colored background. I believe the white spine books are the earlier versions. These were in print between 1983 - 1988.

Titles available (white spine): 6, 10, 11, 12, 15, 23, 30, 31, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 61, 62

Titles available (colored spine): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 18, 19, 21, 23, 24, 25, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 51, 52, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69?, 70?, 71, 72, 73?, SuperSleuths, Ghost Stories, Be A Detective #s1-6

Titles indicating "New in Paperback" (white spine): 30, 31, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60?, 61, 62

Titles indicating "New in Paperback" (colored spine): 32, 34, 35, 36, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68?, 71, 72

? indicates that this volume was *probably* issued in this format

Some of the books indicate the following blurb on the page where all the titles are listed:

* For contractual reasons, Armada has been obliged to publish No. 51 onwards before publishing Nos. 41-50. These missing numbers will be published as soon as possible.