Mummy through the decades

Recently I've been taking a closer look at how family members are shown across the decades in Ladybird Book. 'Mummy' in the 40s 50s and even 60s is often a very glamorous creature - very slender and with wonderfully coiffered hair and unsuitable clothes for the occasion. Here, on Mother's Day, is a summary: 'Mummy' through the decades in Ladybird Books

How to date Ladybird Books

As all collectors know, Ladybird Books can be harder than most to accurately date.  For the most part, the only date in a vintage Ladybird Book is on the title page - and that date is the date of the publication of the first edition, not the actual edition you have in your hand.  This is one of the reasons why so many Ladybird Books are falsely described as 'First Editions' on the internet and even in specialist bookshops.

On the other hand, once you have got your head around the basics, doing a bit of detective work can be part of the fun of collecting.  A collecting pal of mine, Andrew Brade, sent me a table that he uses to help date his books.  It uses guidelines you can find elsewhere (including in the 'How Old is my  Book' section of my website) - original price, tally numbers etc.  But it has been very neatly put together and might be useful to other people out there.  He tells me he is happy for me to share it so here it is:

Click on it to enlarge!

Peter and Jane - The Lost Episodes

Superficially similar to Miriam Elia's work (but actually very different) is this work of artist Jon Bentley: "Peter and Jane - The Lost Episodes".

What I like about this piece is that, once you get your head around it, you realise that it isn't a parody at all but an interpretation.

 I can just about remember what it felt like to look at one of the Key Word Readers, as a young child. You had the excitement and anticipation of moving on to a new book. The pictures were so vivid and the characters familiar. You felt that they had to contain something more vivid and absorbing than the stolid text suggested. There MUST be more going on, and if you looked at the picture for long enough you would see the hidden subtext. Perhaps Jane had actually had a row with Peter that morning and was sulking. Peter was planning to hide Daddy's hammer and Jane was considering whether to tell on him. What was the Policeman REALLy looking for? ...

The richness of the pictures in contrast with the key word-driven text seemed to insist that there HAD to be more to the scenario.

This contrast between the magical anarchy of a child's imagination and humdrum daily reality, for me, is what Jon Bentley has captured in his artwork. Here it is:

 The Lost Episodes

What do you think?

Peter and Jane and Parody

Here is Peter. Here is Jane and here is an excellent vehicle for parody.  This is fun!

Peter, Jane, Mummy, Daddy and Pat the Dog have been asking for it, pretty well since they were invented, in 1964.

For example, there's Wendy Cope's poem, 'Reading Scheme' reflecting on Mummy's relationship with the Milkman:



I've even had a go myself: "Peter and Jane Help Themselves"

One piece that is attracting attention and no little controversy is Miriam Elia's recent book: 'We Go the the Gallery'.

According to the Channel4 Publishers Penguin may take legal action against artist Miriam Elia and her book We go to the gallery . A satire on modern art, it's written in the style of the Ladybird books key words series.

This video explains the story - in mock Reading Scheme style! http://www.channel4.com/news/ladybird-penguin-books-we-go-to-the-gallery-miriam-elia

It never rains in Ladybird Land

Recently it has been raining.  You may have noticed.
Raining a lot.

Of course, it never rains in Ladybird Land.  Ladybird Land is a place of eternal spring flowers and sunny picnics and games with boats down by the friendly river.

Well no.  Actually, it does rain.  But not a lot.  I went on a quest to find out how much it actually rains there.  Perhaps I didn't look in the right places - do let me know if I've missed the obvious, but this is what I've found so far.

The pictures above are from prayer books - prayers encouraging children not to grumble but to be thankful for rain.  A lesson for us all no doubt.

Of course, there's The Princess and the Pea.  Rain is bit essential to the story.  The same is true for The Sleepy Water Vole.





But, once again, it seems we have to turn to Peter and Jane for gritty social realism:

Ladybird Books, Twitter and social media

Ladybird Land feels a long way from the world of social media.

I've been using Twitter for many years and find it very useful for lots of different things.  In my work I found it a brilliant way of staying up to date with the latest developments and for swapping ideas and online resources.  But I didn't want to mix that up with communication with family and friends - so I made separate accounts and switched between them.  Never the twain.

Some years ago I also made a separate Ladybird Books Twitter account, to keep any tweets about Ladybird Books separate from both of the above.  But then I almost never used it.

And so @lbflyawayhome languished.

Just recently I've revived my Ladybird tweeting and have found it very useful.  It points me towards little snippets and websites that I can share easily on Twitter but which I'd probably never get around to blogging about. It's also nice to have a quick chat with other Ladybird Book enthusiasts.

Since it may be true that many Ladybird Book lovers aren't Twitter users, I can put these links up in a batch every now and then for anyone interested.



The other place to mention is Pinterest.  I've made a Pinterest board to collate Ladybird images I find online or ones I upload to different places:
http://www.pinterest.com/mollycoddle1/ladybird-books-loveliness/

As for Facebook, I just can't find a role for it.  I know that there are Ladybird Book 'groups' on Facebook, but it's just not me. 

Anyway:
Links I've tweeted about/found on Twitter that might be of interest:

Plans for the upcoming Ladybird centenury:
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/new-licensing-programme-ladybirds-100th.html

Ladybird parody:
http://londonist.com/2006/04/italica_and_jus.php

The Idyllic world of Peter and Jane:
http://ageofuncertainty.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/idyllic-world-of-peter-and-jane.html?m=1

A word from the editor:
http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/martin-townsend/454709/A-word-from-the-Editor-Ladybird

Ladybird Books and Modernism:

http://dirtymodernscoundrel.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/the-ladybird-book-of-modernism.html

Cinderella rides again - facsimile editions

In the comments of my TV blog post , a number of people, perhaps not surprisingly, called for favourite old Ladybird Books to be re-issued.

I didn't like to say so, but actually, over recent years, Ladybird have tried re-issuing titles from the past.  The first of these I remember was in 2000 when 4 titles were issued in facsimile editions: Bunnikins Picnic Party, The Elves and the Shoemaker, Bunny's First Birthday and The Gingerbread Boy.  More recently there have been gifty box sets "for boys" and "for girls", making the most of the popularity of vintage flavoured presents for grown ups. 

But now Ladybird have gone for the big one.  They've re-issued Cinderella as a 2013 facsimile edition of the massively popular 1964 version (606d).

This is good news for me.  I have lots of copies of the original, but hate being asked to sell any!

Now when I'm asked, I can just send this link.

Is a facsimile edition of a much loved book ever quite the same?  Is the artwork more faded in a later version?  Do you want a copy which shows its age and history - without the crisp hard corners of a brand new spine?
Only you can say.