These days you can find Ladybird books exploring everything from the mid-life crisis to hangovers – examples from a spoof series released by Penguin, which bought the publisher in 1998, to capitalise on the nostalgia and resurgent interest in the series of children’s books. There doesn’t yet seem to be a Ladybird Book of Investing. It would be fun to follow the adventures of the original child protagonists, Peter and Jane, as they pore over balance sheets and the latest earnings reports.
Ladybird had its origins in Henry Wills’ bookshop in Loughborough, established in 1867, Michael Wood explains in BBC History Magazine. The first books appeared in 1914, but the golden age of Ladybird spans the years 1940-1975, when the series evolved beyond stories to cover science, history and nature (and, more recently, How it Works: The Wife). “These snapshots of ‘Our Island Story’ are nationalist, white, largely male; kings such as Alfred are noble and merciful, and the empire is still a Good Thing,” says Woods. Naturally, they are a product of their time, he notes, but many of the stories have stuck with us “like myths”.
It was in the early years of this golden age that Ladybird books assumed the pocket-sized format we recognise today. Paper was rationed during the war, but it was discovered that a single piece of paper could be folded into a diminutive 56-page book, perfect for children. Over 100 million copies had been sold by 2016, says Marion Willingham in the Financial Times. Naturally, the rarest examples are the most sought-after by collectors today. Often they are the ones that were the least popular at the time of their printing, Helen Day, a collector of 10,000 titles, tells the paper. One, The Impatient Horse, about “an errant milk float”, sells for around £250. Cinderella, the only Ladybird to come in a dust jacket, fetches about £180 for a first edition.
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But be careful, warns Day. Ladybird played fast and loose with the rules, so a stated “first edition” may, in fact, be a later version. “First editions” were sometimes completely rewritten and even the illustrations changed, while leaving the original publication date unaltered. “If you’ve picked up an old Peter and Jane book and been bewildered to find Jane in a pair of jeans, this would be why.” Another giveaway is the Ladybird logo – open wings dates the books to the 1940s and 1950s. The “holy grail” of Ladybirds is How it Works: The Computer. Like the Biblical chalice, no one really knows if it ever existed.
Second-hand book shops, car-boot sales and online marketplaces such as eBay are hunting grounds for vintage Ladybirds. Day’s collection has been on tour for the past few years and it is next scheduled to pitch up at Peterborough Museum in the spring if you need inspiration. There is no market for modern Ladybirds. Sadly, that includes the spoof titles. That said, London bookseller Peter Harrington is selling a copy of “the original satirical Ladybird book” We go to the gallery, from 2014, for £1,250. Penguin threatened to sue the publisher, Elia, for infringing on the Ladybird name, so Elia created a new imprint – Dung Beetle Limited.
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