Sadly in later years Kathie struggled with ill health. She died in late 2022 Kathie Layfield worked as an illustator for Ladybird Book for over a decade, from 1976 until 1988. In this period she was one of the most…
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June wrote the 1969 classic book ‘Indoor Gardening’ (series 633 and Learnabout series 634) “Indoor Gardening was the only Ladybird book I wrote. My mother was instrumental in suggesting some of the ideas as gardening was her hobby. she is…
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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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