Shopping with Mother, 1958

Shopping with Mother, series 563, is, for me, one of the more nostalgic and evocative of all Ladybird books.  It was written by child-education expert Margaret Gagg and beautifully illustrated by Harry Wingfield.   It takes the reader through a shopping trip to the local shops.  They visit ironmongers (to buy a hammer for daddy) and the drapers (to buy socks for Susan) and they also buy groceries.  Now I was born in the 1960s and what is most appealing about this is the way Wingfield’s depicts domestic scenes with a perfect blend of accuracy and fantasy – yes, all the details of the book could be from my earliest memories and yet … everything is so shiny and perfect and happy.  Mother has a sort of Hollywood starlet glamour with her white gloves, neat hat and carefully tailored suit over her slim figure while the children are spotless in their school uniform.  Three people walk down the road and do a bit of shopping.  The book should be pretty tedious – but with all the glorious colour and detail of Wingfield’s illustrations, it is a little work of art.

In common with all the books in seried 563, Shopping with Mother was originally issued with a dustwrapper.

This matt copy is in good condition inside and out  Quite heavy wear to all edges and corners.  Cancelled out price (2/6) to front endpaper.  Good, clean pages inside – a little discoloured with age at the tips.  It dates from the 1960s.