The Party, 1960 (scruffy cover!)

The Party, series 563, is, for me, one of the most evocative of all Ladybird books.  It was written by child-education expert Margaret Gagg and beautifully illustrated by Harry Wingfield.   To my 5-year-old self this book was essence-of-aspiration.  The book tells the story of two children, John and Susan, who are invited to Ann’s birthday party.  The children walk unaccompanied to the party, play party games such as hunt-the-thimble and blind-man’s-buff and eat a homemade party tea.  Everyone behaves well.  No one cries and no-one deliberately bursts the balloons.  Ann is delighted with her gift (a Ladybird book and some pencil-crayons) and there are smiles all round.  But the outstanding feature for me – and for many of us – is the party clothes.  Ann has a yellow party dress with a big sash bow and shiny yellow party shoes.  Susan has the same but in blue.  I couldn’t imagine anything more beautiful than those party clothes.

In common with all the books in series 563, The Party was originally issued with a dustwrapper.

This copy:

This copy – as you can see from the photos – has big scribbles all over the cover, front and back and a scuff on the back.  I wouldn’t normally  sell a book in this condition – but this isn’t just any book.  It is hard to find decent copies of The Party because it tends to get loved to death and this book has redeeming features – mainly that it is complete and the inside pages (aside from inscription on the endpapers) have NOT been scribbled on.  The reading pages are a bit crumpled and well-turned but in pretty good shape.

So it’s an affordable copy of a hard-to-find title.

It dates to around 1970 and has the original price of 2/6 printed inside.