The newly-published book "Pink Floyd On Forty-Five" was inspired when the author, Charles Beterams, acquired a huge collection of Pink Floyd singles. He wanted to record, or preserve, the details and artwork of some of the rarer, more unusual examples. Eschewing the Internet, and on the back of his previous book, Charles decided the best way to capture all this for the Floyd community, before the rarest examples became ensconced in a collector's private stash, would be to commit them to print.

Enlisting the help of other major PF singles collectors, such as BD's Hervé Denoyelle, this incredible book - the definitive Floyd singles discography - is the result of their relentless hard work, their research, and the many years some of them have spent in dusty record shops in far-flung corners of the globe.

Apart from entries on exotic countries such as Angola, Costa Rica, Egypt, Jamaica, Kenya, Nigeria, The Philippines, and Turkey, Pink Floyd On Forty-Five also features extensive discographies of 7inch singles from Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, and the USA.

The breadth of countries known to have released PF singles is quite incredible. To have singles illustrated here from territories and countries not traditionally seen as hotbeds of Floyd interest is quite something. One wonders how See Emily Play was received in (pre-Zimbabwe) Rhodesia in 1967 - and also how such a single survived to appear in print over forty years later!

The backbone of the book are 7inch singles that ended up in public, either via the shops to buyers - stock copies - or via the record companies to radio stations and journalists - promotional copies. These are brought together in separate chapters per country, starting with Pink Floyd, followed by Syd Barrett, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Roger Waters, and Richard Wright 7inch singles, all of them in chronological order, complete with release notes and details. Test pressings and acetates conclude matters, including the 1965 Jokers Wild single, the 1966 King Bee/Lucy Leave acetate, an Embryo 7" edit and an Echoes 7", too.

The most visually interesting items tend to be concentrated in Japan and also around Northern Europe - Belgium, Denmark, The Netherlands, Germany and France, with the dramatically varied picture sleeves the different countries offered.

Pink Floyd On Forty-Five is full of high quality, well-printed images (well over 1,200 of them!) on glossy paper, showing two singles per page (including the single's cover, if appropriate, and both sides of the single/both labels). It's an English language, 200+ page hardback 9x9inch size book. The first 1000 copies have been published as a special numbered edition with an exclusive 7inch of the most recent single from Roger Waters, Hello (I Love You), housed in a thick paper sleeve. This is the ONLY place to get hold of it in this format, and the special edition of the book is available exclusively from FloydStuff.com, the online Floyd store that Charles runs.

As many of you know, the joy of collecting is in part the search for those elusive treasures that in themselves are nothing amazing, but as part of a collection, these rarities represent so much more for the avid collector. The final word has to go to our friend Herve, who writes in his foreword: "It is not complete, nor does it claim to be. That is good news, because it means the hunt is not over yet"!