Protected: Ladybird and the M.O.D – the plot thickens
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Read more21st January 2023
Here is Jane
Jane – fictional heroine of the Peter and Jane reading scheme books – was my role model, growing up. In some ways we had a great deal in common: we were both born in the mid-1960s, we both had one…
Read more11th January 2023
5
Forming a Ladybird Government
If you were going to appoint a governement made up of Ladybird book characters, who would you choose? Here’s my top team: Chancellor of the Exchequer: The Ogre from Jack and the Beanstalk. Keeps tight control of financial affairs –…
Read more18th October 2022
A Pebble in the Pond
My Aunt died last month. She never married and myself and my brother were her only younger relatives. As I was clearing her things, last week, I came across this short piece she had written. When and why, I’ll probably…
Read more22nd September 2022
My top 10 of lovely Ladybird belied by their covers
You can normally judge a vintage Ladybird by its cover. For many years the standard approach was to use an illustration from inside the book on the cover. But some Ladybird books really under-sold themselves on the shelf. This is…
Read more
How old is my Ladybird book?
Vintage Ladybird books are famously hard to date because the dating conventions usually used by booksellers rarely work with Ladybird books. The following pages will help you take a book and work out its date. They WON’T help you work…
Read more7th November 2021
“Watch the birdie!” – Getting nature to hold the pose
Wild flowers and garden flowers. You’d think the skills required to illustate one book or the other would be much the same – but that’s not how one artist saw it. ‘British Wild Flowers’ (1957) is one of the best-loved…
Read more23rd August 2021
Harry Wingfield – ‘We Have Fun’
The following is the text of a brochure created to accompany an exhibition of Harry Wingfield’s Ladybird illustrations, held at the New Art Gallery, Walsall, Feb 1st – 17th March 2002
Read more22nd May 2021
The Land of the Ladybird Book
The lovely Kate Garner has written this catchy song which pays homage to the ‘well loved’ books of her childhood. I’ve added a gallery of all the books that she mentions – so you can play the song and click…
Read more
Ladybird’s transition years – a journey through a cardbord box
Lynne Bradbury, 9th June 1947 – 9th June 2020 I’d like to take you on a journey through a cardboard box, and on the way I’m going to talk about Lynne Bradbury. What part did Lynne Bradbury play in the…
Read more3rd April 2021