First and Last

Son goes back to school tomorrow and so we begin turning our attention to What to Look for in Autumn.

Not the last day of the holidays for me. For me it's the last week before I go on holiday again. Having recently been made redundant, it's also the first day of the rest of my life.





So next week I'm going to shake things up a bit and do a bit of solo travelling - to China.

Scary but interesting, I hope.

The Digital Ladybird

In the week that there has been much discussion on the future of the book in a world of eBooks I thought you might like to see this article from The Guardian, on the Ladybird brand's venture into the digital age:

'Ladybird Books' flies away to a new age

Thanks for the tip-off, Jenny

A Private-Eye upon Cinderella

Thanks to Jenny for the tip-off.

Here's the cover of Private-Eye mentioned in the comments of my last post.

Royal Wedding and Cinderella

Ok, the link is very tenuous - but since Ladybird don't seem to be continuing in the earlier tradition of rushing out a Ladybird Book to commemorate the latest Royal Wedding, perhaps I should do my part and celebrate it here with this picture which I have found in different places on the internet:





Cruel, of course, but ...

Sorry I'm late

Happy Easter!

I've been away for several days and didn't had access to a webcam so apologies to those of you who left messages on the audio Q&A below.

I've just caught up now with 4 new responses if you want to check them out below.

If you'd like to leave me a message, please do. Just type in the box and press 'Send'. But look out for the next message which requires you to press Send a second time. I'm up to date with responses, so if you haven't received one, it's because it never arrived.

Have a great break - which will also mark the start of my car-boot Ladybird-hunting season!

Ask me a question

Here's a Question and Answer application that I was experimenting with for work. I didn't originally intend to share it as it looks like a bit of an ego-trip. But having created it and had a few people ask me questions ...

Ask me any question (about Ladybird Books)and I'll try to answer them for you here.

After typing your question in the box, click 'send'. But watch out for the next message which also requires you to click Send - it seems to need reassurance - and to be told to SEND 2 or 3 times! Click just once and I won't get your message - regardless of what I tell you! Give it a go.


Or click on the questions that someone has already asked me (below):

Cassettes

Cassettes - remember them?

It seems a lot of people do.

For a short period, I think between the late 1970s and 1980s, Ladybird started to publish many fiction titles with an accompanying cassette. Occasionally at a car-boot sale I'll still come across a cassette from a Puddle Lane, WLT or Children's Classic book.

Although these cassettes don't seem to have been issued for very long, they seem to have been valued, at least in retropect, by erstwhile owners. This email, which I received last week, is quite typical:

For some years now I have been searching for the "well loved tales" series by Ladybird with the accompanying audio cassettes. Especially their 1979 version of "The Ugly Duckling" would be a fantastic find. I see you offer most of the books but there is no mention of the audio tapes, do you happen to have these as well? Or know where I can find them, possibly converted to MP3?

I have no answer to these enquiries. Does anyone know if you can still get hold of them anywhere?