John Wesley, 1977, Series 561 (mint)

John Wesley was one of the later titles in the long-running 561 series.  Because it is so late in the series, it was produced after the era of  L du Garde Peach and John Kenney – both writer and artist had died a few years before.  It was written by John A Vickers and illustrated by Ronald Jackson.  It was only ever published with this style of cover – unlike other books in this series.

This book is quite hard to find – as is often the case with books first published towards the end of a given series. The earliest editions have matt rather than glossy boards.  The cover illustration is by Roger Hall.  It in no way reflects Jackson’s illustrations inside the covers which are spiky and experimental and deliberately inharmonious.  This favouring of funkier, less representational styles of illustration was one of the ways that the new owner’s of Ladybird tried to signal that the company was under new ownership.  But perhaps it was felt that a more traditional style cover picture would encourage customers to pick the book off the shelf in the first place.

This copy:

With glossy, laminated boards, this book is in mint condition inside and out.  Laminated books tend to fare better and retain their condition – but this book has clearly never been read.  I would estimate that it dates to the 1990s but it doesn’t have an original price on the back.