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Number Of Editions

Re-printed at least twice in the UK. The book was sold to a Russian Publishers so there is indeed a Russian version with a title that roughly translates to "Star Of TV Advertising".

A second Russian edition then turned up on the web from a different publisher in 2010, with the slightly different title of "Mallorca: Some Like It Hotter". Both The Courier books seem to have been picked up by a publishing house that specialises in Travel literature. Some of the reviews on Russian websites complain that they were expecting the books to be more informative about the island of Mallorca! The Kindle eBook and new Paperback edition were issued in September 2023.

MARKS OUT OF 10 FOR THE COVER

Russ looks like he can't believe his luck as, clipboard under arm, he helps adjust the bikini of a beautiful, giggling blonde. Gone is the sheepish look of previous covers. Russ is really starting to enjoy himself these days! There is a second edition that has blue & yellow text rather than blue & orange and the tagline is different. 10/10 The first Russian edition has an impossibly handsome Eastern European couple playing some sort of game on the beach (Pin The Tail On The Donkey perhaps?) and the second one just loses the fella and sticks with the bikini theme.

COVER NOTES

PAPERBACK EDITION 1

Lock up your women, Russ Tobin's back!

Russ the randyman - to whom girls are as flies on the wall - except he squashes girls more gently. Russ was The Sewing Machine Man and The Debt Collector and now he fancies his chances as The Courier in Majorca - fabled resort of sun, sea, sand and sex. And when Russ is around it's mostly the latter. He's lost none of his touch.

PAPERBACK EDITION 2

Our hero seeks sun and sand and comes up with sex!

To Russ Tobin, shading himself from the sun in Majorca, girls are as flies on the wall - except he squashes girls more gently. As tourists swarm the island, Tobin tries it on and wins (hands down!) every time. What's he got that the tourists haven't. Well he's the Courier for a start and he can tell them where to go. Keep smiling Tobin, you're the star of every girl's holiday romance!

RUSSIAN EDITIONS

The Russian blurb is not very detailed and roughly translates to "Star TV Advertising - one in a series of novels about Russ Tobin, gigolo of the seventies. Leaving a career selling sewing machines and starring in TV advertising, he chooses the profession of a tour guide on sultry Mallorca." The back cover of the second Russian edition translates as "Our hero is looking for the sun and sand, and finds love! For Russ Tobin, hiding in the shade from the sun of Mallorca, girls are like flies, with one exception: he slaps them more gently than flies. Tobin goes on the attack again and again - and wins easily each time. How does it differ from the tourists who flooded the island? Well, first of all, about God, I can tell you what to visit. Smile, Tobin, you are the star of every girl's beach romance!"

2023 KINDLE EDITION

Russ Tobin continues his adventures and, having made it in London as a TV advertising star, he's now setting his sights a little further afield and jetting off overseas. No longer The Sewing Machine Man or The Debt Collector - he now he fancies his chances as The Courier in Majorca. And, it seems, Majorca fancies him right back! Set in 1971, this joyful romp in the red-hot Balearic sun soon has Tobin realising that there just aren't enough hours in the day to meet all his commitments to some very needy tourists...

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PLOT

At the start of the book it's just before Christmas, Russ is 24 and has been in London since June. He's working in TV doing adverts and hanging out with his buddy Tony Dane in the questionably titled "Kum Kum Club". On page 49 he meets Vicki Hurst, who works as a Holiday Courier and by the time Russ has "got to know her" properly (on Page 65!) - the idea of becoming a Courier is starting to appeal to him. His success in the White Marvel Soap Powder adverts renders him unemployable on TV for at least a year so it seems an ideal solution. It isn't until Page 122 that he finally lands a job as a Courier in Magaluf, Majorca - starting on 13th March until the season ends on October 20th! Like The Debt Collector - Russ is only actually employed as per the book title for a few short chapters. But don't worry - there is a whole other book full of Russ's Majorcan adventures to come. On Page 138 he meets fellow Courier and soon to be partner-in-crime - the girl-crazy Irishman Patrick Holmes. On Page 188 he gets a letter from Tony Dane saying that he's coming to stay for the whole month of June. You can guess the rest. As an aside - although Stan has a habit of mentioning real hotels during the course of Tobin's travels, those that he names in Majorca (The Marbella and the Don Pepe Hotels in Palma Nova and the San Vicente, The Palma and the Pollensa in Magaluf don't seem to have ever existed. Please let us know if you believe otherwise)

PAGE AT WHICH RUSS TOBIN FIRST TELLS US ABOUT A LADY HE ADMIRES

Page 12.

PAGE AT WHICH RUSS TOBIN FIRST BECOMES INTIMATE WITH A LADY

Page 33 - Tony and Russ take June and Eileen back to their flat whereupon they get to see a home movie of the two girls stripping off, and then a full on blue movie (which in the pre-internet era was clearly quite a shock to young Russ. He claims this is the first time he's ever witnessed such an explicit film, bless him). The lads and girls pair off (even though they have the option of all joining in together, Russ is too much of a gentleman to countenance such an idea), and it's only the next morning when Russ & Tony realise that all was not quite as it seemed...It's here in the third book that you really start to get a sense of how Russ's seemingly endless series of brief relationships are rarely sordid and shallow. Almost every girl he ends up with could be "the one" if circumstances were different. Quite often it's the girl doing the leaving, and Russ is left quite glum about it. Until he inevitably meets someone else a few pages later!

PAGE AT WHICH RUSS TOBIN FIRST DRINKS A VODKA TONIC

Page 15 in the pub, then on Page 23 back at the Girl's flat. On Page 63 Russ imparts some VODKA KNOWLEDGE when asked if he always drinks Vodka - "Ever since I discovered its gentle affinity with my head in the mornings. Whiskey had endowed it with some real thumpers. Gin is pernicious and gives me indigestion. Rum stinks. There's not much left."

PAGE AT WHICH RUSS TOBIN FIRST REMINISCES ABOUT A PREVIOUS ADVENTURE

Page 8.

SERIOUS POINTS RAISED

Perhaps it's that being a Courier is a really tough 24hr a day job and not the non-stop girl-fest you would expect (although Russ has a damn good try...) but in actual fact it's more basic than that. Take chances and follow a dream. Everything happens for a reason.

RATING ON THE MORGANOMETER

A good one - the White Marvel money is pivotal to the whole Tobin story arc across the series and what better place for him to end up than on a beach. 9/10