A Ladybird fifth Picture Book, Series 704, 1973 (lam)

The 5 Picture Books, series 704, is one of the more nostalgic and evocative of series of Ladybird books.  I’ve always maintained that classic Ladybird books, whether they were writing about how the hovercraft works or teaching a baby to count, were essentially picture books.  The picture on the right-hand side of the page had to do most of the heavy lifting, to draw the reader in to the content of the text on the left.  Obviously, in this series the artwork really is the star of the show – the text just consists of a word or two.  But boy does artist Harry Wingfield rise to the challenge!  These illustrations surely represent some of his finest work.  All the domestic, everyday (in 1970s) objects depicted are stunning.  Harry just just paint an egg-cup, he paints the most enchanting, desirable, friendly egg-cup in the history of the world.  No photograph could ever come close.

What’s more, wife Ethel Wingfield was the brains behind this series – conceiving the layout and choice of objects. So it really is an E & H Wingfield tour-de-force.

This copy

It’s hard to find early copies of these books that have not been loved-to-death by their very young readers.  This copy has laminated boards and is in good condition.  It has been well used, there’s a stain on the endpapers and the pages have been well-turned but and generally in good, clean condition.  The cover design of these books were re-designed in the 1980s and this book has the later, more cartoony ducking on the front cover – but inside it’s the original book.  This copy dates to the 1980s and has the original price of 60p on the back.