A guest post by historian Adam Chapman, inspired by a picture by Ladybird artist Ronald Lampitt “A Farm in February is the title of this ‘Picture to Talk About’, published in Treasure Magazine, 1963. But what Ronald Lampitt’s illustration does…
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Not many of us like the sound of their own voices, do we? But in this podcast, recorded recently during (what number are we at now?) the second lockdown, you get not only my voice but the warm, gravelly tones…
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For reasons which I won’t dwell on, I’ve enjoyed escaping into Ladybird Land this year as never before. Every December since I started tweeting about Ladybird books, I’ve offered the nation a Ladybird Advent Calendar on Twitter. In true Ladybird…
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I feel a bit of guilt about Frank Humphris. Until now he wasn’t mentioned on my Ladybird Artists‘ web page and he isn’t currently featured in my Ladybird Artists exhibition. My website and the exhibition focus on the golden-age artists…
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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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I know the saccharine sweetness of the book cover above will be too much for some people, but this book should be a special one to Ladybird book collectors and is particularly significant to me. Let me explain why. 1）…
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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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Part of the pleasure of re-reading the ‘People at Work’ books today is that, unlike so many Ladybirds which dealt with fiction, history or Nature – their stated aim was to show children contemporary, urban Britain. But when the contemporary…
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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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