Ladybird books

[Anita Bensoussane]

I've just returned from a few days away in Birmingham and North Wales. One afternoon we stopped off briefly in King's Norton and looked at a couple of charity shops, which made me wonder how Rob Houghton is doing these days as I know he lives there. Is anyone in touch with him? I hope he's okay. I picked up the Ladybird book Great Inventions (1961), which has interesting information about all kinds of things including the printing press, the steam engine, the sewing machine, the camera and radar. The illustrations are by Robert Ayton and the page about the telephone has a wonderful picture of Alexander Graham Bell using an early version of the telephone. The final invention featured in the book is atomic energy, with author Richard Bowood writing, "At Calder Hall, in Cumberland, Britain built the first large atomic power station in the world... It is a miraculous new source of power which heralds a new era - the Atomic Age". These books provide a fascinating insight into the attitudes of the time as well as being informative and attractive.

[pete9012S]

I think Daisy has tried the most to keep in touch with Rob since he lost his Dad Anita.
She has kindly passed my regards on to Rob a number of times.
I do hope like you, Rob pops back here one day when he feels able to do so.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thanks, Pete. Please pass on my regards to Rob too, Daisy, next time you're in touch with him.

[Daisy]

Thanks, Pete. Please pass on my regards to Rob too, Daisy, next time you're in touch with him.

Yes I will. I try to ring him about once a month. It's just about time I did again! He was okay when I spoke to him last.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thanks, Daisy!

[Boatbuilder]

Likewise, Daisy, please send him my best wishes. I miss Rob's posts.

[Daisy]

I have had a chat with Rob today and passed on all your greetings. He is okay and has been quite busy with decorating nearly every room in the house. He says thanks to those who still remember him!

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thanks very much for that, Daisy! It's good to hear that Rob is okay and is keeping busy.

[Katharine]

Moved from 'What other author are you reading at the moment?'


I finished the Ladybird book about Oil and found it absolutely fascinating.

I don't want to get political about the rights and wrongs of oil and the protestors, but I did find the book very thought provoking. For a start I had no idea just how many by-products there are from oil. Although oil that seeped to the surface had been used on a small scale for possibly thousands of years, Drilling for oil and using in on a larger commercial scale didn't really start until the mid 1880s. Petrol for cars was almost an accidental use as it was a by-product of the process of refining oil for use in lamps and was originally burned as a waste product!

Even if cars and petrol were banned, modern society is very much reliant on oil in it's many forms.

Ironically, the book (written in 1968) ends by suggesting that oil could solve problems such as food shortages in dessert regions by being sprayed onto the sand to retain moisture! Obviously no one at the time considered oil production/use to be a cause of climate change.

Rather worryingly, there is also a suggestion that proteins in oil could be used to help solve food shortages, apparently it was already being used in animal feed. It makes me wonder exactly what may have ended up in the food chain one way or another.

I absolutely love Ladybird books. For a start the titles are so varied, from simple fairy stories for the very youngest children, right through to more informative books such as the one I've just read. I'm not very technically minded, and struggle to grasp a lot of scientific information, but have found Ladybird books perfect for helping me understand how certain things work.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Hope you don't mind, Katharine, but I've swiped your post for the Ladybird thread as you've given such a thorough overview of the book!

I pick up Ladybird books from charity shops from time to time and, like you, I still learn things from them. In titles like The Story of Oil, the text imparts a surprising amount of information in a very readable style. The pictures not only help the reader understand what is being described, but are often works of art in their own right. Robert Ayton was the artist for The Story of Oil and his illustration of "the oil-burning Queen Mary" arriving at New York (Enid Blyton travelled on it!) is fabulous. I like the picture of the items made using petrochemicals too - a transistor radio, a vinyl record, a bottle of washing-up liquid, a camera, etc. They would have been current in 1968 but look gorgeously "retro" now.

[Katharine]

Happy for you to move it Anita.

One of the great things about collecting Ladybird books is that they don't usually cost more than £2 or £3, although i think there are a few very rare titles which go for much more on e-bay. This one about oil only cost me 50p a few weeks ago.

I agree that the pictures usually help with the explanations, although I have to confess I didn't particularly notice the Queen Mary one.

The petrochemicals picture is good, and although the items are "retro", I think most are still being manufactured today.

It's mind boggling to try and imagine how different life would be for us today without oil in its many and varied forms.

[Judith Crabb]

I agree Katharine. I find children's books dealing with a lot of technical subjects far less daunting than adult equivalents, though I don't recall reading any factual Ladybird books as a child. I remember 'The Discontented Pony' was on my first bookshelf and although I don't remember the plot I'm sure it must have had a beneficial effect. In fact I sometimes think I must stop myself from boring everybody with my gratitude, though perhaps fortunately it's never reached Pollyanna proportions.
The lamented absence of Pete's posts made me post this comment - so often I read things on this website but don't post my thoughts. It's such fun to read what others are posting so I should contribute a bit more regularly.

[Katharine]

Judith, I don't remember reading any factual Ladybird books as a child either, unless 'Telling the Time' counts.

To be honest, I'd have probably found them a bit boring at the time, but now I think they are great.

I think apart from the Telling the Time one, that the others I owned were fairy stories or rhymes. Apparently I knew 'Five Little Kittens' off by heart.

When I was older, my sister had Mervyn Mouse which we also learned to recite as we thought it very funny. A few years ago my sister bought me a copy as a surprise Christmas present - one of the best things I've ever received.

[Anita Bensoussane]

A great present, Katharine. I only came across Mervyn Mouse as an adult but it is amusing. Those rhyming stories are addictive. I remember that my children both loved The Bunney-Fluff's Moving Day and could recite chunks of it by heart.

Judith, I had The Discontented Pony - about a pony who wants to become a roundabout horse. I learnt the word 'discontented' from that book. The stories in that series are quite detailed, all revolving around an animal. I had six of them as a youngster and my favourites were Ned the Lonely Donkey and Tiptoes the Mischievous Kitten. Later in life I collected the rest and I'm particularly fond of The Inquisitive Harvest Mouse. Gorgeous books, and the evocative illustrations by Percy Hickling take the reader into an old-fashioned world of hollyhock-filled gardens, linoleum, eiderdowns, Brylcreemed fathers smoking pipes, and elegantly-dressed mothers sitting sewing.

Incidentally, I'm sure that several Ladybird titles of that era feature houses with green-painted skirting boards and door frames. It seems to have been a popular colour back then. In at least four homes I've lived in (including the flat where I live now), there have been chipped/peeled places on the skirting boards and door frames, allowing several layers of paint to be seen from through the decades. All of those homes have had green skirting boards and door frames at some point. During my lifetime, skirting boards and door frames have more commonly been painted white or cream.

[Katharine]

Anita, your childhood collection are all titles I didn't have, but they sound fun, and hopefully I've either got copies waiting for me to read, or will pick them up eventually.

The other series that I had most knowledge of as a child were the Peter and Jane books which I read at school and which I've managed to collect many of over the years.

I've just checked my spreadsheet and so far have read 37 Ladybird books since starting the keep a record, but I know I have dozens more waiting for me to read.

I bought 4 while away at the weekend in an antique shop, they were only £1 which was very reasonable.