Lucinda Riley posthumously awarded Golden Pan at event celebrating 80 years of the publisher

Author Lucinda Riley was posthumously awarded a Golden Pan at an event celebrating 80 years of publisher Pan at The Ned in London.

The Golden Pans were first established in 1964 to recognise one million copies sold. On Thursday 29th February, the award was presented by Pan m.d. Lucy Hale and accepted on Lucinda Riley’s behalf by her son Harry Whittaker, who described it as “an outrageous honour”. 

The author died before she could finish the eighth and final book of her Seven Sisters series, Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt, and her son completed the novel.

Since the awards began, there have been 77 Goldens Pan winners, with past recipients including Ian Fleming, John le Carré, Douglas Adams, Wilbur Smith, James Herriot and Jackie Collins. The Pan 80 anniversary event was attended by authors including Alexandra Potter, Karen Swan, Lola Jaye, Robert Hardman, Sophie Williams and Laura Shepherd-Robinson.

In her speech, Hale celebrated 2023 as the biggest year in Pan’s history, with highlights including the launch of the new Macmillan Business imprint and Danielle Steel reaching one billion copies sold. Earlier this month, Pan also announced two new imprints under Tor: Bramble and Nightfire.

The m.d. concluded: “As Pan evolves we continue to be inspired by the vision we share with [founder] Alan Bott, whether publishing big brand names, experts in their fields, or breaking out stars of the future, we aspire always to publish all kinds of books for every kind of reader.”