Ladybird books

[Anita Bensoussane]

I too was surprised by the Oliver Cromwell book, Francis. As I wrote earlier in the thread:

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.

I remembered there was a story about a monkey which snatched Oliver when he was a baby and scampered up onto the roof of a house with him, so I've just taken my Oliver Cromwell Ladybird book off the shelf to refresh my memory. These are the opening paragraphs of the book:

Oliver Cromwell is one of the most important figures in English history. In the time in which he lived, a great man was needed to lead the people of England in their fight for freedom, and to-day we still enjoy freedoms which he won for us.

Cromwell was born at Huntingdon in the year 1599, and it was on a large farm that he grew up. One story tells of an adventure which happened to him whilst he was staying at the house of his grandfather, Sir Henry Cromwell.

Sir Henry had a pet monkey which was allowed to climb all over the house, and one day it seized hold of Oliver, who was only a few months old, and carried him up on to the roof.

We can imagine the horror with which his grandfather must have seen the monkey climbing about the roof with the baby in its arms. But it is impossible to imagine what England might have been like to-day if the monkey had dropped him.

I wonder whether L. Du Garde Peach really was an admirer of Cromwell, or whether it was Ladybird policy that historical characters had to be presented in a positive light?

I don't think L. Du Garde Peach wrote a Ladybird book about Charles I, but he did write one about Charles II. I'll have to read that again later and see whether he takes a different tack in that book!

[burlingtonbertram]

I wonder whether L. Du Garde Peach really was an admirer of Cromwell, or whether it was Ladybird policy that historical characters had to be presented in a positive light?

I think the BBC4 documentary made that point; maybe indirectly. It pointed out that there was a positive spin on Cromwell in his book and a positive spin on Charles in the other book. I suspect it was policy.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thanks. It might be fun to read the two books one after the other!

[Rob Houghton]

I have quite a few Ladybird books, and like everyone else, I absolutely love the illustrations, and found them inspirational and thrilling as a child, especially the Fairytale series, which mainly belonged to my sister, and had illustrations that really made the characters seem real to me - especially that very scary troll!

As a child I mainly owned the animal stories, Tasseltip books being some of my favourites - I loved the detailed 'map' drawn in the front and back. I also loved the stories that were written in rhyme.

Some of those I have now -

Tasseltip Plays Truant (1975)
Tasseltip Has a Lucky Day (1975)
Tasseltip buys a Present (1975)

A Second Ladybird Picture Book (1970)
The Zoo (1960)
The Lost World (Ladybird Children's Classics) (1981)
The Blue Book of Bedtime Stories (1978)
The Elves and the Shoemaker (1965)
The Story of Charles II (1960)
Charles Dickens (1965)
King Alfred the Great
Stories of Special Days and Customs (1972)
Nursery Rhymes (1965)
Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp (1975)

Ned the Lonely Donkey (1949 but 1970's edition)
Beaky the Greedy Duck (1950 but 1960's edition)

Five Little Kittens (1970's edition)
Ginger's Adventures (1970's ed)
Bob Bushtails Adventure (1970's ed)
Downy Duckling (1960's ed)
The Bunny-Fluff's Moving Day (1960's ed)
The Green Umbrella (1960's ed)
Mr Badger to the Rescue (1960's ed)

Garden Birds (1967)

I had lots more but seem to have 'lost' them over the years. I particularly remember Tiptoes the Kitten, which I think is in my sister's collection.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Ned the Lonely Donkey and Tiptoes the Mischievous Kitten were two of my favourites as a child, along with Mick the Disobedient Puppy. P. B. Hickling's illustrations are beautiful, drawing the reader into a world of frisking puppies and kittens, eiderdowns, linoleum, hearthrugs, tea-cosies, pipe-smoking fathers, aproned mothers and lovingly-tended gardens full of hollyhocks and other flowers. No wonder it was easy for me as a child to make the transition from Ladybird to Enid Blyton!

[burlingtonbertram]

P. B. Hickling's illustrations are beautiful, drawing the reader into a world of frisking puppies and kittens, eiderdowns, linoleum, hearthrugs, tea-cosies, pipe-smoking fathers, aproned mothers and lovingly-tended gardens full of hollyhocks and other flowers.

Sounds like my own, fuzzy any-time that I inhabit (in my head) which is somewhere between 1800 and 1959

[sixret]

I have 15 Ladybird books for sale.

[floragord]

The Ladybird books exhibition at the De La Warr Pavilion is so good I can certainly see us revisiting it time and again - apart from the illustrations there are a number of the actual books set out to read through, definitely one to enjoy to the full until it ends in May.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Sounds great, Flora! Do you happen to know if there is any artwork by Eric Winter in the exhibition? He's one of my favourite Ladybird artists and he illustrated some of the fairy-tale books in the 606D Well-Loved Tales series, e.g. Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty:

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[floragord]

Yes, they had both Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, Anita - both struck me particularly as they are so wonderfully illustrated. I see and enjoy the artwork more each time, different aspects strike more fully, and yesterday hugely enjoyed the spring, summer, autumn and winter covers - I'll have to get some postcards of my favourites for my scrapbook!

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thanks, Flora - I'm pleased that the exhibition includes some of Eric Winter's work.

[floragord]

The exhibition is beautifully laid out Anita, with a table stacked with original books in the entrance area and then several halls where the illustrations are displayed on the walls in series, such as JANE AND PETER GO SHOPPING WITH MOTHER, SCIENCE, SEASONS etc, really attractive to walk round, all our long suffering visitors will be taken to see it, there's an attractive sea-view café for recovery time afterwards!

[Courtenay]

Thanks for sharing all this, Floragord. I have a friend who's just bought a property in Hastings, so I'll let her know about the exhibition in Bexhill - she may be interested. How long is it running for?

[floragord]

Oooh, its running until May '15 Courtenay, (will have a look at the exact date next time I toddle over for a re-view!), plenty of time to get over from downtown Hastings

[Katharine]

I thought I'd better not clutter the Enid Blyton book thread with Ladybird books!

I was very pleased with the Ladybird books, I got The Story of Flight and The Story of Joseph, but with D/W and priced 99p each. They are definitely the older style books, but have both been price clipped, which I assume makes them cheaper, as a 'proper' collector wouldn't want them. The other one was 'Warwick the King Maker'. According to the Post-It note attached to it, it never had a D/W as it was issued in 1966. I paid £2.49 which was a bit pricey as the back cover is a bit tatty, but it's a book I've never heard of before, so I took the gamble that it's a harder to come by title.

Typically I also saw a Peter and Jane book for only 99p, which was one I'd been after for months, and had only managed to get a little while ago. Just like buses, none for ages and then two come along almost at the same time.

Now I just need to find the time to borrow the newly published book all about the history of Ladybird books. I did get it out of the library just before Christmas, but never had the time to get past the first few pages.