Ladybird books

[Katharine]

Well my bargain of at the weekend wasn't quite as good as I thought.

It turns out that one of the books I bought (about artists) I already have, and only paid 50p for!

[Anita Bensoussane]

You could always keep the spare in case you have grandchildren in the future!

Having checked I'm afraid that it was not the "What to Look For" series, although the illustrations might well have been from Charles F. Tunnicliffe. However, I will keep searching as I would really love to identify the book in question.

The Ladybird Book of British Wild Flowers is another possibility, illustrated by Rowland Hilder and Edith Hilder. If not, I hope you'll be able to find the book you remember by doing a search for something like "Ladybird book nature" and seeing what comes up.

[Boodi 2]

Thanks Anita! I will let you know if/when I am successful.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Bargains are still to be had as I found a Ladybird book for 10p in a charity shop today - The Happy Prince and Other Stories, dating from 1983. The book is in the Ladybird 'Classics' series and contains abridged versions of three stories by Oscar Wilde, retold by Marie Stuart. I bought it partly because of the cover and endpapers, featuring a quaint-looking town with cobbled streets, old-fashioned buildings and a statue - the setting for the story 'The Happy Prince', which is bittersweet and is perhaps my favourite of Oscar Wilde's tales for children. Some of the internal pictures are nice too. The book is illustrated by Gwen and Shirley Tourret (sisters, I believe).

[Anita Bensoussane]

It's nearly three years since I went to Gloucester to see a touring Ladybird exhibition, and it was so good that I saw it again in Bath a couple of weeks ago (it has now finished in Bath but will be in St Albans from 10th May - 8th September).

The exhibition focuses on Ladybird artists. A favourite piece of artwork for me was Martin Aitchison's painting of a toyshop, done for the 'Peter and Jane' book I Like to Write in 1977. Many of the toys (perhaps all of them) are recognisable toys of the day - including a dalek, a Basil Brush, a Fisher Price pull-along dog, a Sindy doll and an orange pedal car just like the one my sister had. Martin Aitchison brings things to life beautifully and it was a surprise to learn that he was initially rejected by editorial director Douglas Keen as 'not right for us' but went on to illustrate almost 100 Ladybird books!

Another favourite was a set of four pieces of artwork by Harry Wingfield, showing children playing in the garden with boxes, planks, tyres, prams and bikes. Wingfield's paintings, like Aitchison's, are so lifelike. They were done for Learning with Mother Book 2 in 1970-71.

It was great to see Ladybird books in different languages, showing how popular they were around the world. The ones on display were in Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish, French, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Japanese, Maltese, Scottish, Spanish, Turkish and Welsh.

I was taken aback by a letter written by John Leigh-Pemberton, who illustrated nature titles. He wrote that he didn't like doing Ladybird books as "These fiddling little books for kiddies don't really give me any sense of achievement"! He also felt that the printing quality was poor and didn't do the artwork justice.

For some reason I'd always thought of A. J. Macgregor (Smoke and Fluff, etc.) as male but I learnt that she was female, her first name being Angusine.

There were many more delights and I'd recommend the exhibition to anyone who loves Ladybird books.

[Viv of Ginger Pop]

I took a group of Dorset bell-ringers to London yesterday, and one of the churches was St Olave's, Hart Street, where Samuel Pepys worshiped.

Naturally enough, I took the Ladybird biography of Pepys with me, for homework on the train. It was light enough to carry, and gave as much information as most people wanted

The end papers were particularly informative. At the front was a map, showing the area that had been burned in The Great Fire of London in 1666, and that St Olave's had just avoided the flames. At the back was a graph showing deaths of those who had died in the plague of 1665, along with a Bill of Mortality giving cause of death in August 1665.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Ladybird books are ideal if you want a quick overview of a historical figure or event, Viv. Whenever I read one of the history titles, I learn something new even now. I don't have the Ladybird book about Samuel Pepys but I've read his diaries (or two volumes containing selections of the diaries) and they give a fascinating insight into life in the 1600s.