Publishers Wills & Hepworth
published their first pocket-sized Ladybird book in 1940 entitled
Bunnikin's Picnic Party.
Ladybird books are each made with 52 pages which are
folded from one sheet of paper measuring 40 inches by 30 inches.
Some early books from the 1940s had 56 pages - the extra pages
were used to edvertise other Ladybird books.
For the first 30 years Ladybird priced their books at 2'6 Net.
William the Conqueror, British
Birds and their Nests, King Alfred the Great, The Silver Arrow,
The Child of the Temple, The Story of Daniel andThe Little Lord Jesus
were originally published with white titles on their dust-wrappers.
The Tinker's Wig(series
478) is the only Ladybird book to have had gilt
lettering used on it's front board. It was also twice the size
of a standard Ladybird book and differed in it's style of artwork.
Ladybird's hardest title to find as a collector will no doubt
be the privately printed edition of The
Computer from series 654 - In 1972 the Ministry
of Defence ordered 100 copies in plain covers for training
purposes. For more on rare Ladybird titles look
here.
From 1940 - 1965 Ladybird books were published with dust-wrappers
- an exception to this are a few of the early Key
Word Reading Scheme books, better known as the Peter
and Jane books. This series alone has seen the sales
of 100 million copies world-wide.
The earliest matt edition ( book without a dust-wrapper) was
published in 1964 - this was the first title in the Key
Words Reading Schemeseries and
was called Play With Us
and was coded 1a.
Harry Wingfield who illustrated more than a third
of the Peter and Jane
books, used local children, Jill
Ashurst and Christopher Edwards as models for his
illustrations.
Between 1940 and 1980 Ladybird published 59 different series
covering a varity of subject matter.
Series 478, 538, 618, 671, 684 and 733 were all non-starters
with each containing just one title.
As far as we can tell Tasseltip
is the only character to have moved from one series to another
- originally belonging to the stories of 474 this mad rabbit
later appears in series 497.
In 1961 Wills & Hepworth
changed their Ladybird logo from that of an open-winged ladybird
to one with closed wings.
Ladybird's youngest author and illustrator is Jayne
Fisher who wrote and illustrated The
Garden Gang series in the 1970s.
In 1971 Wills & Hepworth
becameLadybird Books. Just one year later,
the company was taken over by the Pearson Group,
who at that time also owned Longmans, the Financial
Times and the Westminster Press.
Although Ladybird closed thier factory in Loughborough in 1999
the welcome sign at Loughborough Train Station still read "Welcome
To Loughborough: Home Of Ladybird Books". The
sign was removed in 2000. If anyone has
a clue to where this old Loghborough Station sign now is please
get in touch.
4 titles from the 401 series were never reprinted at matt editions (without dust-wrappers) - these were: Jeremy's Day in the Country - Pippety's Unlucky Day - Jonathon's Shopping Day and High Tide
