Bernard Herbert Robinson was born on 28th April 1930 in Broad Green, West Croydon, the only surviving child of Herbert and Lillian Robinson. In 1942 he attended John Ruskin Grammar School where he developed a keen interest in art and…
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[Adapted from a biography written his son. To find out more about Frank Hampson, please see the official website] Frank Hampson was born in a small terraced house in Audenshaw, near Manchester, on 21 December 1918, just after the end of…
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As fans of Alfred Hitchcock Movies like to try to spot his cameo role in each film, so a Ladybird book collector can try to spot all the wonderful instances of Ladybird publicity in books. There are loads of them,…
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John Kenney illustrated some of the best loved Ladybird Books of the 1950s, 60s and 70s John T E Kenney produced a great many of the wonderful Ladybird Book images at the start of what might be called the ‘golden…
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Something else to look out for when collecting Ladybird books: foreign language editions. Although we think of these books as quintessentially British – or perhaps more accurately English – they were also issued in a great many other languages. These…
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Part of the spoken tribute at his funeral, by his daugher – The Ladybird Years It’s not an exaggeration to say that Douglas invented Ladybird books. He didn’t invent the format – that was around since 1941; but the image…
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Robert Ayton was one of the main illustrators for Ladybird Books during the ‘golden years’ of the 1960s and 70s. You can read more about Robert here and here
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Robert Lumley was born in Southwark, London, in 1920, the elder of two surviving children. The family moved frequently between London and his father’s native Tyneside, chasing work. Young Robert made the best of an itinerant life, joining the Scouts…
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You’ll find a longer page about Martin and his work for Ladybird here Martin Aitchison was born in Staffordshire in 1919. He was educated at Ellesmere College, Shropshire where his profound deafness hindered his academic education. However,his precocious artistic talent…
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Whenever anyone writes the story of the Peter and Jane Key Word Reader books, they, not unnaturally, tell a similar story: that the first Peter and Jane book was published in 1964, written by William Murray and illustrated by Harry…
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