| Meet George Towers
- An ex-employee from Ladybird |
George
Towers is a man that has just recently
celebrated his 90th birthday and who has also spent
most of his working life at the Ladybird
factory in Loughborough, Leicestershire.
George, who still lives in Loughborough today, remembers
his many years at Ladybird with
great fondness, and was kind enough to share his
experience with Radio
Leicester.
As private collectors of Ladybird
books The Wee Web were especially
delighted when George's grandson, Mark Hirst, offered
to help us obtain a transcript of the interview.
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| George
Towers -
Ladybird ex-employee |
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George Towers was interviewed by BBC Radio Leicester
in a series known as "Sense of Place".
George talked about his career at Ladybird books
and some of the profound changes that took place
while he was there.
"I was invited by Wills and Hepworth, the Loughborough
printer, who eventually became Ladybird Books, to
join them, as a lithographic artist, in 1938."
I left them in 1979. The fact that it was created
by a Loughborough firm, and became what arguably
is one of the best known children's book series
in the world, with translated editions in almost
sixty languages and dialects, I can say that Loughborough
ought to be quite proud of the existence of Ladybird
Books."
External pressures of a competitive book market
would lead to Ladybird leaving its roots in Loughborough.
The then Managing Director explained the reasons
for the closing of the works:
"This was a desperately hard decision to make.
In my five years in Ladybird as Managing Director,
I grew to admire the company and what it stands
for; but it's a decision that had to be made, to
ensure that Ladybird's future is bright and it's
readership remain loyal to a brand that can grow
and develop.
The children market is flat, highly competitive
and changing. This decision had to be taken, it's
a sad day, that Ladybird which has been a part of
Loughborough life for so long, will no longer be
a main part of Loughborough life."
George remembers the closure of the Loughborough
site:
"The owner of the company was getting beyond
in years, retiring age and he was persuaded by his
financial advisors to sell the company and he chose
the big publishing house who owned Penguin books
and Puffin Books.
So it was inevitable that Loughborough would lose
control of Ladybird, it must be about three years
ago I would think. That was the end of Loughborough's
connection with Ladybird.
Fortunately it didn't stay empty for very long,
it was bought by a company who produce rather nice
wallpaper, so it's still a printing house, and it's
still in good use. I have to say it doesn't look
quite so tidy as it used to do.
The atmosphere at Ladybird was one of happiness.
Ladybird employees of the past would say they enjoyed
working at Ladybird."
George finished his reminiscences with a
comment on how Peter and Jane would change to reflect
changes in society itself:
"The Ladybird keywords reading scheme featuring
Peter and Jane became the best selling reading scheme
in this country and was in use in something like
75% of primary schools and achieved sales of something
like 80 plus millions.
When Peter and Jane first appeared in the early
sixties, Jane was dressed in pretty dresses with
hair ribbons, and Peter had short trousers.
Peter did boys things, and Jane did girlish things.
Now ten years later, Ladybird were getting attacked
by people who were saying that they were too middle
class, that boys no longer wore shorts, they wore
jeans. Girls no longer had hair ribbons, they wore
jeans, and we had to spend a fortune on altering
all the illustrations to bring Peter and Jane up
to date. The alterations to Ladybird represented
a social document showing exactly what had happened."
BBC Radio Leicester "Sense of Place" web
address:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/leicester/sense_of_place/landmarks/index.shtml
Special thanks to:
George Towers for kindly giving
the time to talk to us.
Mark Hirst for providing us with
the transcript.
Karen Pirie from BBC Leicester
for putting us in touch with George. |
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| Random
fact |
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Publishers Wills & Hepworth published their first pocket-sized Ladybird book in 1940 entitled Bunnikin's Picnic Party. |
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