ANNE JOHNSTONE from The Herald newspaper reveals how the classic and well-loved kids' Ladybird books are causing a buying frenzy among collectors and memory-laners.

WE all remember them. Whether it's the fairy tales, the stories of the kings and queens of Britain or even the one telling us how to make a transistor radio. They used to be the backbone of children's nurseries. And one of the best things about Ladybird books was the price - for 30 years they cost 2/6 (12p).

As we grew up the books were thrown out, given to jumble sales or ended up in the loft. Now, however, could be the time to look out these childhood treasures because many of the pocket-sized hardbacks are highly collectable and some sell for hundreds of pounds.

Even the Ladybird artwork by Martin Aitchison and Harry Wingfield is the subject of a current exhibition.

No-one could have known how big Ladybird books would become when the first, Little Stories For Little People, was published during the First World War by printers Wills and Hepworth. Next came the ABC Picture Book. Today Little Stories could fetch £75; an original ABC book could go for £50.

In 1940 the first of the "real value for money", half-a-crown, pocket-sized version came into print. After the Second World War, Ladybird moved into educational non-fiction, bringing attractive scholarly books to kids for the first time.

It was in the 1960s Ladybird enjoyed unprecedented success. The now world-renowned Key Words Reading Scheme series, published following the discovery by educationalist William Murray that just 12 words make up 25% of the words we speak, proved a winner. More than 80 million books in the series have been sold to date.

The rest is history and a great deal of nostalgia. Children of the Sixties and Seventies will fondly remember the Learnabout books on topics such as knitting, camping and heraldry, or the How It Works series, including tips on the motor car, the ocean liner and the printing processes.

I go to look on my bookshelves, just in case any have survived a half century of house moves. There's just one: The First Queen Elizabeth, its red dust jacket faded to orange.

Ladybirds today are altogether more glossy, although they are still the same size and shape. They are printed in 60 languages and sell 20 million copies a year. There have also been money-spinning tie-ups with film studios such as Disney, producing a Ladybird version of The Lion King, Toy Story and Tigger.

However, for traditionalists, Ladybird books have never been quite the same since they discarded their dust jackets in 1964, and, horror of horrors, since 1980 when photographs largely replaced original artwork.

There have always been plenty of the "proper" Ladybirds to be had for those who knew where to look: jumble sales, car boot sales and charity shops. But it's the internet that has now caused a surge in demand.

Net traders such as Ebay have pages of Ladybirds. There's also a sale/swap service on Ladybird's own website.

Or try one of the specialist sites such as The Wee Web or Nick and Simon Robinson's cheesypeas.

Earlier this year a copy of a story in verse called High Tide, published in 1956, fetched £207 after a fierce online auction. More recently, a mint first edition of The Impatient Horse sold for a record £255.

The latest must-have Ladybird is The Adventures of Wonk, a cute koala who began life in the 1940s. Send one of those to the scout jumble sale and you could lose out on a three-figure sum.

Robert Mullin, originally an Edinburgh hand-craft bookbinder, is the man behind The Wee Web, an online children's literature website which has a very good section regarding Ladybird books. Robert sources about 100 Ladybird books a week and sells at least the same number.

He says: "I suppose collectors like myself have generated a new industry. I was always collecting something and Ladybirds became my new obsession in 1992. I had three or four Ladybird books to start with, including Jack and the Beanstalk and Cinderella from the Well Loved Tales series. Within a year I had amassed over 1000 titles, many of which are doubles.

Robert says: "No-one knows exactly how many books there are within this period as there are a few myths about the existence of certain titles, but I expect there to be approximately 1200."

Today The Wee Web has approximately 2500 pre-1980 Ladybird books in stock, though figure obviously includes many doubles, triples etc.. Robert's aim as a private collector is to present a first-class online resource centre for Ladybird collectors.

Robert continues: "The Wee Web strives to give an informative insight into the world of Ladybird books - we offer information on the history of Ladybird, spotting first editions and discuss the series published in some depth. Wee also have a lot of Ladybird's for sale as well as other children's books".

If all this sounds like a spot of British eccentricity, it's worth noting Robert also does business with collectors in America, Hong Kong and Australia.

His own favourite is the 401 series (every Ladybird book has a three digit number and in most cases the first two digits indicate the year the first book in the series was published) - stories about animals told in rhyming couplets. "They're lovely little books with wonderful illustrations and there's something quite calming about them."

Robert's best bargain was an Adventures of Wonk found for 20p in a charity shop. "I tried to remain calm and remember feeling very guilty about handing over such a little amount for such a rare book. My friends used to think I was "a complete nutter" collecting Ladybird books but now they realise my investments have come to frutation and are kicking themselves.

Val Graham, of Glasgow, a part-time marketing consultant and mother of two girls, hadn't seen a Ladybird book for 20 years when her then four-year-old was loaned a copy of The Party by her nursery school. Opening the cover was like stepping back into her childhood. The short smock party dress, the pigtails, the games of blind man's bluff and hunt the thimble, it was all there just as she remembered it.

She says: "We had a nice library of new books but these Ladybirds were different. They were so nostalgic."

Val started picking up Ladybirds in charity shops and via the web and now has 200. She also uses the Key Words books with her children and believes they are as relevant today as a teaching tool as they were when she was a child.

Many of the older Ladybirds are, however, decidedly un-PC now - in an early ABC Picture Book, "A" stood for "armoured train". Some of the books have also enraged feminists for the stereotypical way they depict characters.

"It's true," says Robert, "the girls are always helping mum in the kitchen, while the boys are in the garden or fixing the car with dad.

"My life with my two children isn't like that at all but I find it funny. It gives you a vivid impression of what life was like in middle-class Britain. Everything was very prim and proper and there's a charm in that."

The above article appeared in The Herald in 1998.