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This is the story of why I have a portrait of a very serious, elderly stranger in prime position in my Ladybird bookroom – and why I am proud to be his guardian. Are you sitting comfortably? A long time…
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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…
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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…
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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
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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…
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Most people come to vintage-Ladybird-appreciation after using the books in childhood. A few people come to appreciate them as adults. But one of the strangest routes I’ve yet come across is via an Indonesian biscuit tin. Last month a lady…
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Charles Tunnicliffe – by close friend and fellow-artist Kyffin Williams. I thought I would share it here (lightly abridged) because it offers a beautiful and personal insight into the man and his work
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There isn’t one ‘Ladybird’. The name means different things to different people. No one, (no – not even I) grew up in a house with every Ladybird book available. We may have had a few around the house and then…
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When in later life John Berry sat down to write his memoirs he gave it the working title ‘A Brush with Life’. It was a good choice to sum up the working life of an artist who created such sensitive,…
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Here are some of the photos from the Ladybird exhibition: Ladybird Artists Opening Event in Canterbury on Friday 8th (the evening before the public opening). It will run until the 23rd September 2018 at The Beaney House of Art and…
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