Many of us today who have a love of history may feel this is in part due to the vivid and enthralling Ladybird illustrations in the history books that they grew up with. On Thursday 13th of June, a plaque…
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The main two museums in Reading are the Museum of English Rural Life and the Reading Museum and Art Gallery. If you are interested in Ladybird books, you may be aware that there is a small but permanent exhibition of…
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I bring joyful tidings regarding two different Ladybird book exhibitions which are coming up this year. 1) An exhibition about Ladybird Books in Reading, opening soon. 2) MY exhibition – ‘The Wonderful World of the Ladybird Book Artists’, taking place…
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Once upon a time, when you were young and your parents took you to visit grown-up friends and family, you were probably often bored. No smartphones or computers and very limited children’s TV programming. If there were no children around,…
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My top-10 of Ladybird book trivia Or ‘ten things you have probably never wanted to know about Ladybird books’ 10 The price of a Ladybird book (2 shillings and 6) stayed the same for 31 years -from 1940 until 1971…
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This table looks pretty unremarkable. It’s plain and simple and with a formica top. Some of us will remember tables like this in the house of relatives – or perhaps have one lurking somewhere in our own. So what’s it…
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Last week I spent an afternoon surrounded by the artwork of the Ladybird artist John Kenney. I went to The MERL (Museum of English Rural Life) in Reading where the Special Collections are stored. I’ve talked about MERL and the…
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Flowers didn’t feature much in my childhood. Our garden was tiny, my parents both worked and money was rather tight. We lived in a street of terraced houses, surrounded by similar streets – a perfectly pleasant environment in many ways…
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Peter, Jane and narrator – and the Ladybird Artists exhibition This recording for BBC Radio Kent was made at the opening of the Ladybird Artists exhibition in June 2018. In it I talk a little about the…
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So many of us will have grown up with Ladybird books at school in the 1960s and 70s that it’s hard to remember that they weren’t always a fixture on school shelves. The school market certainly wasn’t in the minds…
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