Uncle Mac 6 titles published
between 1940 and 1980
Ladybird's
fourth series 455, otherwise known as the Uncle
Mac books, are one of the more collectable Ladybird
series today. This was a small series comprising of six
books, all originally published with dust-wrappers and
full pictorial boards - the first book, In Green
Pastures with Uncle Mac was originally published
in 1945.
This was the first educational series of books that Ladybird
published and was found to be a huge success with young
readers - Ladybird's next eduction series wouldn't appear
until 1953, the nature series
536.
Uncle
Mac, alias Derek McCulloch,
was a children's entertainer, author and radio broadcaster
with the BBC.
McCulloch had a high profile in children's
entertainment in the 1950s, and had also lent his name
to numerous children's annuals.
He was enlisted by Wills & Hepworth
as a well-known "name" with which to launch
series 455 of ghost-written "educational" books.
Uncle
Mac - alias Derek McCulloch lent his name to the
455 Ladybird series
The
illustrations in the books, mainly by Septimus
E Scott, are far different to the usual Ladybird
style and look more to be from the 1920s. In the
Train, illuistrated by WC Watson
we find the artwork is very different and much more like
that of the 1950s.
The uncle Mac books were printed many
times, some more than others, but printings do not go
beyond 1961 - this was the year that Wills &
Hepworth changed their open-winged Ladybird logo
to that of a closed-winged ladybird.
Books
in series 455 All entries below describe the first
edition of each title.
Click on a title for more info.
In 1999, when the Ladybird factory closed, the last books to come out of the bindery were 210 hand-made versions of Tootles the Taxi (series 413) - one for each member of staff as a leaving gift
