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An interview with the curator of ‘The Wonderful World of the Ladybird Artists’. Laura Dodsworth Dec 14, 2024 [I was interviewed by Laura last year and the interview was published on her substack ‘The Free Mind” (see link above). These…
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This is the story of why I have a portrait of a very serious, elderly stranger in prime position in my Ladybird bookroom – and why I am proud to be his guardian. Are you sitting comfortably? A long time…
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There’s a much-loved book in Ladybird Land from 1960 called ‘The Party’ in which two young children go to their friend Ann’s birthday party. In the story, they give Ann a gift which she unwraps right away – and to…
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Jane – fictional heroine of the Peter and Jane reading scheme books – was my role model, growing up. In some ways we had a great deal in common: we were both born in the mid-1960s, we both had one…
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The following is the text of a brochure created to accompany an exhibition of Harry Wingfield’s Ladybird illustrations, held at the New Art Gallery, Walsall, Feb 1st – 17th March 2002
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Most people come to vintage-Ladybird-appreciation after using the books in childhood. A few people come to appreciate them as adults. But one of the strangest routes I’ve yet come across is via an Indonesian biscuit tin. Last month a lady…
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This table looks pretty unremarkable. It’s plain and simple and with a formica top. Some of us will remember tables like this in the house of relatives – or perhaps have one lurking somewhere in our own. So what’s it…
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So many of us will have grown up with Ladybird books at school in the 1960s and 70s that it’s hard to remember that they weren’t always a fixture on school shelves. The school market certainly wasn’t in the minds…
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Let me tell you story about a Little Red Hen. This is a story that has a moral, only I’m not quite sure what it is. Once upon a time there was a Ladybird book about a little red hen…
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Last summer, when the programme makers of BBC4’s ‘The Ladybird Book Story’ came to film, I showed the director Jon Bentley’s ‘Peter and Jane’ inspired art: ‘The Lost Episodes’. She liked them as much as I do and took the…
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