Ladybird books

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lizarfau
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Re: Ladybird books

Post by lizarfau »

I received Boys and Girls: A Ladybird Book of Childhood for my birthday and it really is gorgeous. It brought back a lot of memories, including thinking I looked sophisticated with a sweet cigarette! :lol: The page on what primary school was like back in the 1960s and 1970s was very accurate, I thought, though the parts about how we all lived in nice detached houses definitely wasn't ... :)

Those Ladybird books were fantastic, I do wish I'd kept them. I particularly liked the nature ones, like What to Look for in Autumn. Being a townie, I never did see a weasel or stoat. :( The fairytale books were brilliant too, my favourite illos from all fairytale books were in the Ladybird versions. And, like so many others, I learnt to read with Peter and Jane – and better than the last two decades of trendy methods they were, too. I've used Peter and Jane at home to help my own son learn to read and he loves them, too.

I think this is the best tribute book to a well-loved series of books that I've ever seen.
malachi456
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Re: Ladybird books

Post by malachi456 »

Actually, that bookseller has got it wrong. Only one edition of High Tide was ever produced. That is why it is so rare. It was produced in 1956, so if they are selling one it is the 'first edition' - buy with confidence - if you want to spend that money!
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Anita Bensoussane
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Re: Ladybird books

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

I was pleased to see in the Radio Times that there is to be a programme about the history of Ladybird books on BBC4 on Sunday at 9 PM:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03mp53s" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Katharine
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Re: Ladybird books

Post by Katharine »

Thanks for sharing the link Anita, I had already highlighted it in my Christmas Radio Times, but forgot to share it.
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Re: Ladybird books

Post by John Pickup »

Anita Bensoussane wrote:I was pleased to see in the Radio Times that there is to be a programme about the history of Ladybird books on BBC4 on Sunday at 9 PM:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03mp53s" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I should think that all children's book lovers will be interested in this programme. I shall be watching it.
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Re: Ladybird books

Post by Moonraker »

I think you will have to make do with listening to it, John! It's on the wireless, the Home Service. :wink:
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Katharine
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Re: Ladybird books

Post by Katharine »

According to my Radio Times, it's a TV programme on BBC4, 9.00pm Sunday 22nd December.
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Re: Ladybird books

Post by Julie2owlsdene »

Ladybird books, happy memories. :)

8)
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Re: Ladybird books

Post by Moonraker »

Oh dear, it doesn't take much to confuse me, these days. I read BBC4 as Radio 4. Sorry, John - I must treble check before trying to be clever. :oops:
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John Pickup
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Re: Ladybird books

Post by John Pickup »

Moonraker wrote:I think you will have to make do with listening to it, John! It's on the wireless, the Home Service. :wink:
I always say wireless. I shall, of course, be listening as well as watching.
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Re: Ladybird books

Post by Viv of Ginger Pop »

Excellent.

I've started collecting them over the last couple of months, starting with those I regard as general knowledge, which includes fairy tales and the ladybird re-telling of classic stories.

I've been exploring English history with nephew and these books are perfect for telling the story with a book that isn't bulky or heavy! William the Conqueror was just right before visiting the Bayeax Tapestry at Reading!
http://www.bayeuxtapestry.org.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Ladybird books

Post by floragord »

Katharine wrote:Thanks for sharing the link Anita, I had already highlighted it in my Christmas Radio Times, but forgot to share it.
We were just talking about the RADIO TIMES yesterday, funnily enough, and wondering if many people still got it, Katherine! We used to buy that and TV TIMES and mark the programmes for the whole hols, but now get the DAILY MAIL guide which is well laid out and goes thru to NY and beyond. Noticed the piece on LADYBIRD BOOKS tomorrow, we plan to watch it before our usual wireless progs the rest of the evening :)
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Moonraker
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Re: Ladybird books

Post by Moonraker »

We were just talking about the RADIO TIMES yesterday, funnily enough, and wondering if many people still got it, Katherine!
We subscribe to it, and I read it from c2c every week! The last annual readership (not sales, though) figures I could get were as follows:

It was read by 2,222,000 people, which is 4·4% of the adult population.

http://www.mediauk.com/magazines/36222/ ... ip-figures" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Ladybird books

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Viv of Ginger Pop wrote:I've started collecting them over the last couple of months, starting with those I regard as general knowledge, which includes fairy tales and the ladybird re-telling of classic stories.

I've been exploring English history with nephew and these books are perfect for telling the story with a book that isn't bulky or heavy! William the Conqueror was just right before visiting the Bayeax Tapestry at Reading!
I hope your nephew is enjoying the books, Viv. My children also liked vintage Ladybird books when they were younger, and learnt a lot from them. They're wonderfully portable as you say, and we used to take What to Look for in Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter out with us when we went for countryside walks. Ladybird weren't producing much in the way of non-fiction titles by that time but I had (and still have) quite a collection of titles on subjects like science, history, geography, nature, music, art, jobs and technology, so my daughter and son were able to read those. Of course some details were out of date, but that made for a welcome history lesson.

'The 'Adventure from History' series is compelling even from an adult perspective and contains some surprising material. Oliver Cromwell (1963) by L. Du Garde Peach is startlingly pro-Cromwell, introducing him as "a brave and deeply-religious man who was a friend of all honest men - and who fought for many years against what he believed to be tyranny and injustice." L. Du Garde Peach makes Cromwell sound more like Old King Cole when he writes, "Oliver Cromwell was a Puritan, but he liked music and dancing and was fond of going to horse races." Rather different from what I've read about Cromwell elsewhere! The illustrations by John Kenney are super - beautifully detailed and full of colour and movement.

A couple of weeks ago I picked up some 'Lives of the Great Scientists' Ladybird titles in a shop in Notting Hill - Charles Darwin (1973), Madame Curie (1970) and Michael Faraday (1973) - all with lovely illustrations by various artists (as was typical of Ladybird books of that period). They were also written by L. Du Garde Peach. I already knew quite a bit about Darwin, having read several of his books over the years and visited his house (Down House in Kent) about three years ago, but it was interesting to be reminded of the details of his early schooling:

"All attempts to educate Charles Darwin failed. He was sent to Shrewsbury Grammar School, and though he remained there for seven years, he learnt almost nothing. When he left, the headmaster reported that he was little better than a dunce. His father agreed, and was certain that Charles would disgrace the family... The fault was not with young Charles, but with a system of education which has now gone for ever. It was strictly classical, which meant that Latin verses had to be composed, and long passages of Latin learnt by heart. To a boy whose only interest was in nature, this was not very interesting... Charles found ponds more interesting than people."

I knew the basic facts about Marie Curie and her discovery of radium but I hadn't realised that she and her husband made a conscious decision not to patent their discovery because they wanted the world to benefit freely from their work:

"Pierre and Marie Curie had discovered how to isolate pure radium. No-one else could do it. It was their secret. It was also a very valuable secret. If Marie Curie was right in thinking that radium could cure cancer, the demand for it would be world-wide. Already an American firm had written to M. Curie, asking for details of the process. Other firms were sure to follow, and all were ready to pay large sums of money for the information. If M. and Mme. Curie were to patent their method of producing radium, they could be millionaires in a year... 'It is impossible,' said Marie. Pierre sighed. 'We could have a fine laboratory,' he said. Marie shook her head. 'It would be contrary to the scientific spirit,' she said."

As for Michael Faraday, I knew very little indeed about his work on electricity and magnetism so the Ladybird book taught me a lot. The following anecdote made me chuckle:

"At times he [Faraday] was even too preoccupied to notice meal times or even the season of the year... On one occasion he was experimenting with a magnet set upright in a bowl of mercury. A cork, a piece of wire and a metal cup completed the simple apparatus. Faraday's brother-in-law, who had come to dinner, stood watching him."

L. Du Garde Peach writes that suddenly Faraday cried out, "Look! It's turning!" and called excitedly for his wife, who came running from the kitchen.

"'Have you brought me all the way down to look at that?' she asked. 'What about the goose in the oven - and the pudding? Don't you know it's Christmas Day?' Faraday looked at her blankly. 'Is it?' he said."

It seems that Enid Blyton's Uncle Quentin resembles Marie Curie in his desire to present the results of his research freely to the world, and Michael Faraday in his tendency to lose track of time and miss meals!
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
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Eddie Muir
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Re: Ladybird books

Post by Eddie Muir »

I found your post both interesting and informative, Anita. :D

Our daughter and son had a large collection of Ladybird books when they were children. Once they had grown out of them, they were passed on to friends who had children younger than ours. Now we have come full circle and friends have been giving us Ladybird books for our two grandsons. We have also been buying some of the new editions and have accumulated quite a lot more from various newspapers that offer them in exchange for collecting their printed tokens.
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