Hannibal, 1958, Series 561

Hannibal was one of the last Ladybird books to be written by L du Garde Peach and one of the last to be issued with a full-page colour picture.  It was the 38th book in the series.  It was illustrated by Frank Humphris.  Because this book dates from the period that Ladybird was sold, it was only issued with this cover for a very short period.  Under new owners who were keep to ring the changes, later versions of this book have the blue framed cover.  Only the first edition looks like this one – and is now quite rare.

This copy:

This matt copy is a first edition with the rare original style cover.  It is generally in very good condition but for the spine, where there are some small flakes of colour missing (see photo).  Inside the pages are very nice and clean.  As a first edition, it has the original price of 24p on the back.