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On Saturday, The Guardian – Keen’s favourite newspaper – published an obituary. If you missed it, you’ll find a version of it here. It was written by Cressida Connolly , who I’ve never met but who I think must be…

I learnt today from a family friend that Douglas Keen has died. Douglas Keen was Editorial Director of Ladybird over the period of the 1960s and 70s – the publisher’s ‘golden age’ – and was in no small part responsible…

If you missed the feature on Martin Aitchison on BBC2’s “See Hear” yesterday, you’ve got a week to catch it on the BBC iPlayer. A great mini-feature on a wonderful man and a very interesting life. BBC iPlayer: See Hear

The BBC 2 programme ‘See Hear’ is planning to make a Ladybird feature “along the lines of a montage of illustrations, photos of children through the ages reading Ladybird books”. ‘See Hear’ is a deaf magazine programme presented entirely in…

Do you collect Ladybird Books? Do you read the Financial Times? I have been contacted by a journalist who is considering writing a feature on Ladybird Book collecting. If you have the sort of job typically associated with an FT…

Well, what a washout this car-boot season has proved to be! No interesting finds at any of the few that weren’t rained off. I have come across a couple of other oddities in the last couple of months, though. The…

Did Peter and Jane do it for you? Ladybird Books are looking for help from parents and carers. Please read the following message from Shaleeza on behalf of Ladybird: *Free Ladybird book !* Dear Parents/Carers, My name is Shaleeza and…

“Tootles the Taxi, in mint condition (no spine, missing page 3)” Ok, I made that one up. But bookselling is now no longer the province only of the professional. Now that books are bought and freely sold on the internet,…

The dates of the next Martin Aitchison exhibition – this summer – have been published. His website states: “The next exhibition of Martin Aitchison Ladybird artwork will place between July 2008, between 1st – 27th inclusive, at Newby Hall in…

Someone has contacted me, trying to find a book. The only lines they recall are: “Porridge piping hot with cream on, How they loved it, weren’t they glad” This person believed that these lines came from Piggly Plays Truant –…