Fun stuff

I'm trying to set up a new area on my website that will contain a few 'coffee-break' activities and trivial stuff (as opposed to the deadly serious business of Ladybird Book collecting!).

Pretty dresses in well-remembered books seem to have had a powerful effect on the memories of a number of the people (women) who contact me. There often appears to be one particuar dress (or 'frock' - that seems like a good Ladybird word) which was the subject of childhood envy and longing. But which one?

Please take a look here and vote

Newby Hall and The Independent

There was another Ladybird Book article in a national newspaper last week - this time The Independent on Saturday. Here's the link to it:
http://arts.independent.co.uk/books/news/article2833919.ece

The article was written as a prelude to the opening of the exhibition of Martin Aitchison's original Ladybird Book artwork at Newby Hall in Yorkshire.

This exhibition is going on until September and has been a big success so far - the best selling pieces being (unsurprisingly) the original Peter and Jane illustrations from the 1960s.

Antiques Roadshow

Had some fun yesterday. I had been 'invited' down to the south coast, Bexhill on Sea, where they were filming an edition of the Antiques Roadshow on Modern Collectables. I'd been asked to bring a small sample of books as they weren't sure if it would be of any interest to the book expert Clive.

A fresh, blustery, showery day outside the De La Warr Pavillion on the sea front. Much milling and to-ing and fro-ing. People with walkie-talkies, security people, marshals and pavillion staff and, from 9.00 a steadily growing queue of people clutching bulging bags of items for perusal.

Because we'd been invited we didn't have to queue, but hung around in a separate area feeling like minor celebrities. Very minor. I had no guarantee that my books would be of enough interest to feature on the show. Other 'invitees' were a sure-thing, having been visited by their 'expert' in their homes. One of these 'A-list' invitees (the proud owner of some rather oddly shaped radiators) sounded very unimpressed by my proposed contribution to the show. "Ladybird Books? We have hundereds of those at home".

Clive appeared and we found a corner to show my wares. He looked busy and business-like and rather unimpressed. This was clearly not his area of expertise so I hurriedly told him why I thought certain items might be of interest. His face stayed blank - stoney even. "Too much detail" he muttered and stalked away.

A few moments later one of the BBC staff returned. "As I thought" she said, "Clive thinks they're of interest so we'll be filming you as soon as we get a slot". Well Clive sure has a funny way of showing it! I had been sure she was about to break rejection to me gently.

Almost immediately we were take to a table, dabbed down by a jolly make-up lady (my son refused to have anything put on him) and we were seated with Clive as he talked me through my items. The second the cameras were rolling he came over all jolly and twinkly and avuncular - but I suppose if you have to keep that pace up for 12 hours, you have to ration your goodwill and good humour rather.




Half-way through filming the sky grew suddenly grey and rain stated to fall. I was torn between the desire to keep things going and the urge of the collector to throw herself bodily across the books to protect them from the drops. By the end of the interview there were 4 people holding light-boards and umbrellas over us. It turns out these people weren't motivated by the desire to protect my First Editions but to finish the scene. Having filmed the piece they then had to focus on the hand-movements and shoot those separately. Trying to keep the continuity was like trying to re-place the ball after a foul shot in snooker. During the interview I had foolishly gone to move a book and Clive (in rather un-avuncular fashion) actually slapped my hand away! The director and cameraman were lynx-eyed on the position of the books, re-tracing our hand movements from one to another to enable close-ups.




And that was it. I was bundled away to make room for a collection of posh ceramic jewellery. The new series of AR (as we conoscenti call it) starts in September, at which time I'll find out when the "Tomorrows Antiques" episode will be shown.

Always assuming, of course, that we don't get edited out...

Janet and John!

Thanks to Terry Wogan, I think, - there seems to have been a revival of interest in Janet and John books recently. People muddle up Janet and John (which were NOT Ladybird Books) with Peter and Jane - which, of course were. I am old enough to remember both. When I was learning to read, at the end of the 1960s, Peter and Jane must have been the new kids on the block because the scheme was first issued in 1964. I can't remember much about Janet and John - they didn't seem to do a right lot, and by the 1970 I don't remember seeing the books around at all - whilst Peter and Jane went on and on and on ... The books are still in print today, I think.

Why didn't J&J have the same appeal? Well they didn't have the wonderful full-page artwork of the Keyword reading series and most of the stories didn't feature the 2 children at all but re-told fairy tales. What's more the dialogue between Janet and John makes Peter and Jane look like sparkling conversationalists. And of course Janet and John were American, not British so the backdrops were that bit more remote.

Financial Times?

There was a piece on me and my Ladybird Book collecting in the FT at the weekend. Strange old world that of all newspapers, this one should contact me.

The piece is online if anyone's interested.

Updating site

I'm in the process of giving my Ladybird website a bit of a (much needed) update and revamp. I'm only about half-way through - but when I get around to uploading it (after the Bank Holiday weekend) you'll find rather an odd jumble of styles if you look through a number of pages. As it settles down, please let me know if anything is missing or if any links are broken.

Cinderella

I couldn't put it off any longer. Cinderella. If you're male, skip this posting. You won't get it. It's a girl thing.

This is the most popular Ladybird Book of all time, by miles, according to the long-standing poll on my website. There are thousands of different versions of Cinderella in the world. (Didn't someone once say, "There are only 7 stories in the world - and 6 of them are Cinderella?) And there were 4 different Ladybird Book versions of the story issued between the 1950s and the 1980s. But this one is the definitive oeuvre - this is the book that shaped a generation of girls' ideas of beauty and the posh frock. You see, Cinderella went to three different balls in this version and had three different dream dresses. It was like a magical precursor to "What Not To Wear". Yes, Cinderella gets the prince in the end - but she also gets a whole new wardrobe. Love and shopping - irresistable - like the "Rodeo Drive" scene on Pretty Woman (one of the 6 stories in the world).

Just about every British woman now aged between 35 and 50 will remember those three glorious frocks - and will have strong opinions about which was the dream dress - the subconscious yard-stick for the wedding-dress decades later. You were either a 'pink-silk-and-rosebuds girl', a 'blue-statin-and-net' girl or a 'white-gold-gauze' girl. Personally, I was pink-silk.

Here we meet Cinderella before the great make-over. How tastes change! This picture seemed all that was subtle, poignant and understated to my young eyes. I remember studying this picture and then asking my mother why the painting of the Mona Lisa was so famous and this picture wasn't. I remember my mother failed to give me an answer that I considered satisfactory.