People at Work – writers Ina and Jack Havenhand

“Mum and Dad and Ladybird books”

Ina and Jack Havenhand wrote the popular ‘People at Work’ series of Ladybird books, which were published between 1961 and 1973. The following was written for me by their son, Barry.

“This note is made from my own imperfect recollections, at the age of 70, without any family archive or other papers to refer to.

Dad (Jack, as he was always known) was born in February 1921 in the large mining village of Huthwaite, Notts. War broke out when he was 18, and he always said in a self-deprecating way, he knew he would have to do his bit, but reckoned that he might have the qualities they were looking for in a fighter pilot, so instead he quickly volunteered for the army.

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He spent the war years as a sapper in the Royal Engineers, seeing action in the Western Desert, then landing in Italy and ending the war on VE Day in Ulm, Bavaria. He spoke little about his war experiences, though I think, like many of that generation, it affected him deeply. After the war, by then in his mid-20s, he got a place at Carnegie Teacher Training College in Leeds.

Mum was born in December 1927, in Workington, Cumbria. Her father, Pip, from the Isle of Man, was a crane driver on the Workington docks.  Mum was christened Williamina, after her mother, but was always known as Ina. She went to the local Grammar School and, on leaving, at around the end of the war, she too got a place at Carnegie, which is where she met my father.

They were married in around 1948, and remained together until his death. They worked as teachers in the Mansfield area, where I was born in December 1953. It follows that I was either a young child or a self-absorbed teenager when the Ladybird books were written, hence I didn’t take as much notice as I should have done. In December 1955, we moved to Worcester, as Dad got a job there, and my brother was born in 1957. At some point, Dad completed a diploma in Psychology at Birmingham University, and I think that was where he met [writer and educationalist] Vera Southgate. His job was as a peripatetic reading teacher, teaching children in and around Worcester who were unable to read very well at about age 8, and Mum went into infant teaching when family commitments allowed.

Vera lived in Worcester too, or certainly had a flat there, in a lovely mansion called Bevere House. I don’t know how Dad and Vera decided to write together, but I believe their first venture was the phonetic reading book series “Sounds and Words” published by University of London Press in 1959, and which remained in print for many years, earning a modest royalty income.

I don’t know how Dad and Vera got the commission to write for Ladybird, but she was well-connected, and we lived not far from [Ladybird’s editorial director]  Douglas Keen whose home in Stratford was just 27 miles from Worcester.

Dad and Vera jointly wrote what is I think the first “People at Work” book, “The Policeman” then she moved over to do the Well Loved Tales series, and he carried on the People at Work series.  My mother helped him, and, after the first few, she was credited as an author too. Two teacher incomes in the 1960s was enough for a decent lifestyle, and the books were a side hustle- funding holidays in Switzerland and France, and nice cars.  We moved from a semi to a detached house in a smarter road in 1964, and they were always oddly proud of not having a mortgage, just some sort of short-term bank loan, so maybe the books helped more than I knew.

I think it also fair to say teaching was not as onerous and time-consuming then as it is now, so they had plenty of time. Their creative process really involved waiting till my brother and I were in bed, or doing our homework, then they poured a gin and tonic, and sat down to write a couple of pages a night, carefully counting the words. I think they wrote longhand, we never had a typewriter, but a colleague of his typed them up. They weren’t precious about being interrupted by family. I never remember being told to go away or keep quiet, because they were writing. They just sat together in armchairs in the sitting room and wrote. They always regarded Ladybirds as potboilers, as Ladybird owned the copyright and paid a fixed fee. I think they earned around £100 per book for the writing, so a useful, but not life-changing, amount.

I’m a little vague on their research – they certainly did some, including visits to the Elan Valley dams for the Water book, and to BMC at Longbridge for the car book- I remember them being very excited about that visit on their return.

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I don’t remember the book-writing having any impact on me or my school or social life. I don’t think people knew or were bothered, I certainly didn’t get any kudos or reflected glory, or any micky-taking either. Nowadays, however, people are always interested if I mention it.

Pictures were sometimes an issue. John Berry did the paintings, but he worked from images, not from imagination and he didn’t always have the right images. I recall this was sometimes a bit of an issue, with Berry wanting them to supply pictures, and them grumbling that he earned more than them, and should source his own. The most interesting one is “In a Hotel” where many of the pictures were from our holiday photos, and photos taken specifically for the purpose, taken at the Merton Hotel, St Helier, Jersey. The picture on p11 is my father collecting the room key; the picture on p43 was the real manager; on p47 my brother is standing to the left of the picture and I’m in the water, just below him. By then they had a track record so it was easy to get people to agree to have pictures taken. The book was published in 1972, but the holiday was some years before that, maybe 1967/68, which shows there was some advanced planning.

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As for the other Ladybird people, Douglas Keen sometimes came to our house, and we to his, but they weren’t close friends- I recall he had a posh car. I met John Berry once or twice, I don’t know why or where, but most of the work was done by post and telephone. I’ve no memory of anyone else at Ladybird. Vera Southgate was “Aunty Vera” and I liked her, though she had a slightly disconcerting and piercing way of looking at you as a child, and wore glasses a bit like Dame Edna Everage.

When I was about 16, so round about 1970, Dad had a ‘funny turn’, which turned out to be Multiple Sclerosis, a progressive illness. This was I think, the beginning of the end for their writing, as his health declined, and she spent more time looking after him. I don’t know if they consciously decided to quit, or whether it just faded out.

At various times I remember the question of the Ladybird reading scheme coming up, but it was not to be. They sometimes discussed becoming full-time writers, but the lure of the monthly paycheck and the pension kept them in teaching.

Dad died in 1997 and Mum lived until her early 90s and died in 2019. In her later years, the Ladybird books found a new audience, and she became, in a very minor way, a celebrity. Friends, neighbours and care workers, when they found out (and once they realised she wasn’t  shy about telling people) referred to her as “Mrs Ladybird”. I tried to encourage her to do talks starting with WI or Rotary groups, but couldn’t interest her.

Having set out to write this note, I’m embarrassed at how little I know about my own history. I think it is in a way a tribute to them that they managed to write so many books, over around a 15 year period, with so little impact on family life.

Taunton, March 2024 ”                                                                                                        

Barry Havenhand