0:00:22 > 0:00:25Ladybird books were once as much a part of childhood as lace-up shoes
0:00:25 > 0:00:27and warm school milk.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30To open a familiar one is to go straight back in time.
0:00:30 > 0:00:33I'm going to spoil the ending for you.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36These colourful little hardbacks were full of information on
0:00:36 > 0:00:39myriad marvellous subjects.
0:00:39 > 0:00:42They made the natural world fascinating.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45To me, as a child, knowing that this was out there with
0:00:45 > 0:00:49a scowl on its face like that was tremendously exciting.
0:00:50 > 0:00:53They made fairytales enchanting.
0:00:53 > 0:00:55"Snow-White and Rose-Red kept their mother's cottage
0:00:55 > 0:00:58"so clean and tidy, it was a pleasure to go into it."
0:00:58 > 0:01:01Immediately, you're there in this perfect little world.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04And they made history dramatic.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07This is the first time I've held this book for 52 years,
0:01:07 > 0:01:12and it really began a lifelong passion that I have for Nelson.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15The vintage years for Ladybirds were between the 1950s and
0:01:15 > 0:01:18the 1970s when they offered up the world of knowledge to
0:01:18 > 0:01:20children in a very particular way.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25One of the things that is so good about Ladybird is, actually,
0:01:25 > 0:01:27there's a huge amount of detailed factual content,
0:01:27 > 0:01:30and it was very carefully researched.
0:01:30 > 0:01:32What they illustrated was a time when there was
0:01:32 > 0:01:36a great deal of optimism through science,
0:01:36 > 0:01:40and it filtered all the way down to wanting to tell children about it.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44These early Ladybirds are also time capsules that shed light on
0:01:44 > 0:01:47what Britain used to be like and how we used to think.
0:01:47 > 0:01:49All growth is good, building motorways is good.
0:01:49 > 0:01:51To aspire was a good thing.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55That was the consciousness that presides in the Ladybird universe.
0:01:55 > 0:01:57This felt like a very safe world,
0:01:57 > 0:01:59like the sort of world...how the world ought to be.
0:01:59 > 0:02:01For three generations,
0:02:01 > 0:02:05millions of Ladybirds multiplied on the nation's bookshelves,
0:02:05 > 0:02:08and the story of how that happened and the creative force behind
0:02:08 > 0:02:12them is described in this interesting documentary.
0:02:12 > 0:02:13HE LAUGHS
0:02:15 > 0:02:17That's wonderful. If only more blurbs were like that.
0:02:29 > 0:02:33Necessity is often the mother of invention, and the iconic shape
0:02:33 > 0:02:38of a Ladybird book was invented to get round wartime paper rationing.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41The company behind the idea were not even publishers.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44Wills & Hepworth were a Midlands printing firm casting around
0:02:44 > 0:02:47for a means to keep their presses rolling.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50Their foray into children's books was made possible by the discovery
0:02:50 > 0:02:54of an ingenious way to beat the paper shortages.
0:02:54 > 0:02:57And Helen here is going to show you what they did.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01Somebody had hit upon the idea which is that you can actually take
0:03:01 > 0:03:03one sheet of paper. With just a couple of cuts and
0:03:03 > 0:03:05some clever folding,
0:03:05 > 0:03:07you can turn it into a book. I'll show you how big it is.
0:03:07 > 0:03:11It's printed on both sides. 52 pages. Very, very clever.
0:03:13 > 0:03:17That make, do and mend approach gave us the now familiar Ladybird book -
0:03:17 > 0:03:21seven inches high by four and three quarter wide, 52 pages long
0:03:21 > 0:03:25with text on the left-hand page and pictures on the right.
0:03:25 > 0:03:28They sold initially for two shillings and sixpence.
0:03:28 > 0:03:33"Yes! Away the Bunnies started. Bunnikin, of course, was last.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36"Fluff called, 'Bunnikin! Don't dawdle!'
0:03:36 > 0:03:39"'Well,' he said, 'you go too fast.'"
0:03:39 > 0:03:43The early books were charming but hard to actually read.
0:03:43 > 0:03:44Wills & Hepworth had
0:03:44 > 0:03:47no feel for children's books beyond coloured pictures.
0:03:47 > 0:03:51I think it's clear that Wills & Hepworth didn't really see the value
0:03:51 > 0:03:56of what they were doing, they didn't see this as their core business.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59But one of their employers saw more potential in the book.
0:03:59 > 0:04:01His name was Douglas Keen.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05Keen was a salesman with the company and, after the war,
0:04:05 > 0:04:08he set about convincing his bosses to take a different tack.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12Keen thought Ladybirds would be better as educational books.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15Post-war Britain was a society changing fast.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19Why not use the Ladybird format to make books to inform children
0:04:19 > 0:04:21about the world and what was in it?
0:04:21 > 0:04:25Keen could see the kind of book he had in mind, so he went home,
0:04:25 > 0:04:28sat at his kitchen table and made a prototype.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31This telephone directory-sized object is the prototype that
0:04:31 > 0:04:36my father made himself to try and convince the Board of Directors
0:04:36 > 0:04:40that an educational book about birds would be a good seller.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43He chose birds for the first book cos that was the thing
0:04:43 > 0:04:47he loved most and the thing he was most interested in and was
0:04:47 > 0:04:49most knowledgeable about.
0:04:49 > 0:04:52I think my mother did some of the little sort of line drawings
0:04:52 > 0:04:55as well as illustrations, and he worked out a text.
0:04:59 > 0:05:00As well as his wife,
0:05:00 > 0:05:03Keen also enlisted the help of his mother-in-law - a gifted
0:05:03 > 0:05:06amateur artist who did the colour paintings of birds.
0:05:11 > 0:05:17This massive prototype became a mock-up of how the book would
0:05:17 > 0:05:20actually look when it was published.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24Again, a little watercolour painting by my grandmother and some
0:05:24 > 0:05:26cutting and sticking that he did,
0:05:26 > 0:05:29typing little bits out himself, cutting other bits out from
0:05:29 > 0:05:35books and making an actual size mock-up of how the book would look.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40Keen stuck to the existing Ladybird format of picture on one side
0:05:40 > 0:05:44and text on the other. The difference was in the content.
0:05:44 > 0:05:46He now took his sample books and showed them to the board at
0:05:46 > 0:05:47Wills & Hepworth.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53Once he'd produced this and shown it to the directors,
0:05:53 > 0:05:56they then realised that this would work.
0:05:56 > 0:05:58They hadn't been able to imagine it before but,
0:05:58 > 0:06:00once they could see this in front of them,
0:06:00 > 0:06:04they realised that this could become a commercial possibility.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11In 1953, the first edition of the British book of Birds And
0:06:11 > 0:06:14Their Nests rolled off the printing presses.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17To create it, Keen employed both a famous naturalist and
0:06:17 > 0:06:22a wildlife artist. Their names were a big selling point.
0:06:22 > 0:06:24This is the first book of British Birds,
0:06:24 > 0:06:30and I think it's a lovely, lovely bird book because the illustrations,
0:06:30 > 0:06:34which were done by a notable artist, Seaby,
0:06:34 > 0:06:37are exquisitely produced.
0:06:37 > 0:06:39Bullfinch - oh, look at that. What a fantastic bird.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42And there is its egg. And they're there in the snow.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46It's kind of looking out of the back of its eye like a cat when
0:06:46 > 0:06:48it thinks you're about to do something nasty to it!
0:06:50 > 0:06:53And this is... Yes, all these pictures are incredibly evocative.
0:06:53 > 0:06:54And, of course,
0:06:54 > 0:06:58they are all absolutely classic English garden birds.
0:06:58 > 0:07:00So there was...
0:07:00 > 0:07:03You could look up from the book and see them flickering around in
0:07:03 > 0:07:05the garden.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09Keen's instinct that a bird book might be popular proved right.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12It tapped into a vogue for bird-watching that the BBC
0:07:12 > 0:07:13also picked up on.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20- ARCHIVE:- Bird speeds are usually grossly exaggerated.
0:07:22 > 0:07:23But you can take this, I think,
0:07:23 > 0:07:30as a safe general rule, and that is that the bigger the bird,
0:07:30 > 0:07:32the faster it flies normally,
0:07:32 > 0:07:36and the smaller the bird, the faster it seems to fly.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43Now, young twitchers could buy an affordable hardback pocket guide
0:07:43 > 0:07:46with unusually generous colour illustrations and bite-sized
0:07:46 > 0:07:47bird effects.
0:07:50 > 0:07:55"The bullfinch is one of our most beautiful birds.
0:07:55 > 0:08:01"The nest is made of twigs lined with hair and is just a shallow cup.
0:08:01 > 0:08:07"Starlings are very clever at imitating the songs of other birds."
0:08:07 > 0:08:09Starling's singing away, and there's its blue egg.
0:08:09 > 0:08:13And I'd already found half of one of those on the lawn in my garden.
0:08:13 > 0:08:15So I was really pleased to be able to say,
0:08:15 > 0:08:18that egg that I found is a starling egg.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22So this book was having a practical use immediately.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27Douglas Keen was one of Wills & Hepworth's top salesmen -
0:08:27 > 0:08:30debonair, hard-working and smart.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33But now, he had a product he really wanted to sell.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37He loaded up the company car and set about marketing it with gusto.
0:08:38 > 0:08:43In order to help promote the books in the bookshops,
0:08:43 > 0:08:47he would actually make or get made cut-out models of some of
0:08:47 > 0:08:51the animals, and then those would be used in the bookshop windows.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54He was very good on the sort of presentation,
0:08:54 > 0:08:59the retail psychology side of it of what would draw people's eyes.
0:08:59 > 0:09:00For the bird book,
0:09:00 > 0:09:05he did a mock-up with little stuffed birds and real branches.
0:09:05 > 0:09:06That was the sort of thing he did.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10And he would get the showcases made by a local carpenter.
0:09:10 > 0:09:13He would get a local sign writer to paint them.
0:09:13 > 0:09:17It stopped people in their tracks as they walked by the bookshop window
0:09:17 > 0:09:21and the children would see this big attractive display
0:09:21 > 0:09:23and say, "Look, Mum, can I have that book?"
0:09:23 > 0:09:26And the manager would feel that he'd had something done specially
0:09:26 > 0:09:30for him and, therefore, put extra effort into making a good display of
0:09:30 > 0:09:35books inside the shop and to getting the assistants to sell the books.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38Keen's creative salesmanship paid off.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41Very quickly, the books sold out and were soon followed by
0:09:41 > 0:09:43bird books II and III.
0:09:43 > 0:09:45Very quickly, letters came into Wills & Hepworth from
0:09:45 > 0:09:47happy bookshop owners.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51"For the attention of Mr Keen.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53"As a matter of interest, we thought you would like to know that,
0:09:53 > 0:09:56"since displaying the special set of Ladybird British Birds And
0:09:56 > 0:09:59"Their Nests, we have sold over 300 copies of this book."
0:09:59 > 0:10:04"We are swamped with orders - an increase of 40%."
0:10:04 > 0:10:07"Dear Sir, I feel sure you will be interested to know that, during the
0:10:07 > 0:10:11"last 24 days, we have sold upwards of 700 of your Ladybird series..."
0:10:11 > 0:10:13"I thought you would be interested to hear the results achieved at
0:10:13 > 0:10:16"the branches where the special displays of Ladybird books
0:10:16 > 0:10:20"have been featured. Bridgend, 513, Llanelli..."
0:10:20 > 0:10:23"We have now reached well over the 1,000 sales mark of the
0:10:23 > 0:10:24"Ladybird bird book.
0:10:24 > 0:10:28"We are very pleased with these results."
0:10:28 > 0:10:30One letter in particular convinced Keen
0:10:30 > 0:10:33he was on the right track with factual books for children.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36It was from a primary school adviser called John Gagg.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40Gagg claimed schools were in desperate need of well-written
0:10:40 > 0:10:44educational material and thought the Ladybird formula might be
0:10:44 > 0:10:45the answer.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50"Teachers are almost vainly seeking easy reference books of many
0:10:50 > 0:10:52"kinds," wrote Gagg.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55"With British Birds, you have now rung the bell,
0:10:55 > 0:10:57"but we want lots more."
0:10:59 > 0:11:03Keen already had ideas lined up for more books and the success of
0:11:03 > 0:11:06British Birds meant the Board of Directors were open to his
0:11:06 > 0:11:07suggestions.
0:11:09 > 0:11:15In 1956, Ladybird launched a new history series. It was a smart move.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18The subject was part of the school curriculum and potential for
0:11:18 > 0:11:20titles was almost endless.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22It will probably surprise you but,
0:11:22 > 0:11:24of all of the Ladybird books that I had,
0:11:24 > 0:11:28probably my favourite wasn't any of the wildlife titles.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31It was this book here, which is the story of Henry V.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34Here's the map, shows the route from Southampton,
0:11:34 > 0:11:37which is where I lived and where I was born and grew up.
0:11:37 > 0:11:39So this had that immediate context.
0:11:39 > 0:11:43Over they go, into France, and there was the siege here, and they go on
0:11:43 > 0:11:46this long march and they end up here at the muddy field in Agincourt.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53The history series was very timely. Britain had just come through a war.
0:11:53 > 0:11:55Children were aware of the role heroism,
0:11:55 > 0:11:58leadership and sacrifice had played.
0:11:58 > 0:11:59To write the series,
0:11:59 > 0:12:02Douglas Keen needed someone who could handle such big themes for
0:12:02 > 0:12:06children, and he found him in the children's department at the BBC.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16- ARCHIVE:- England expects two words which, down the years,
0:12:16 > 0:12:19have shaped the course of history, two words which, in our
0:12:19 > 0:12:23country's need, have never failed to find an echo in our English hearts.
0:12:23 > 0:12:27There is no order of a tyrant king to a slave people.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30These are freedom's words addressed to free men,
0:12:30 > 0:12:33theirs to withhold or give. England expects.
0:12:35 > 0:12:39That speech was written by Lawrence du Garde Peach.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42A dramatist rather than a historian, du Garde Peach was not
0:12:42 > 0:12:47an obvious choice, but he was, as it turned out, an inspired one.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51"This is the story of one of the greatest and bravest sailors England has ever known."
0:12:51 > 0:12:54Well, you see, how could that not go straight into your heart like an arrow?
0:12:54 > 0:12:56The second paragraph says, "His many adventures,
0:12:56 > 0:12:59"from his first boyhood voyage to the last great victory at Trafalgar,
0:12:59 > 0:13:01"are described in this interesting book."
0:13:01 > 0:13:02HE LAUGHS
0:13:05 > 0:13:07The history books are almost literally everything you
0:13:07 > 0:13:12really need to know about British and Scottish history. Um...
0:13:14 > 0:13:18In tiny little book form.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22The Story Of The First Queen Elizabeth in that.
0:13:22 > 0:13:23It's just amazing.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29Du Garde Peach's take on history was that it was an awfully big
0:13:29 > 0:13:32adventure, full of interesting and colourful characters you
0:13:32 > 0:13:33could relate to.
0:13:35 > 0:13:39L du Garde Peach, I think, is a fantastic writer because he brings
0:13:39 > 0:13:43a sort of immediacy and cheeriness to the way that he conveys history.
0:13:43 > 0:13:45It makes it very easy to understand,
0:13:45 > 0:13:47and it's quite personality-based, which I really love.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50One of my favourites is The Story Of Charles II,
0:13:50 > 0:13:53which is quite partial, and it says...one of the pages says,
0:13:53 > 0:13:55"King Charles was dark and good-looking.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59"What was much more important, he was a very friendly man.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02"But perhaps what made him most popular was that he was gay.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05"That is why King Charles II was known as the Merry Monarch."
0:14:07 > 0:14:09Fantastic. That's L du Garde Peach for you.
0:14:09 > 0:14:13I think this is a really amazing scene.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16This is the scene of the young Oliver Cromwell as a boy,
0:14:16 > 0:14:20and he meets the future King Charles I,
0:14:20 > 0:14:23who's of course just kind of a young prince at that age.
0:14:23 > 0:14:25And there's a big tussle and guess who wins?
0:14:25 > 0:14:26Well, of course it's Oliver!
0:14:26 > 0:14:31But the visual quality of this - the bright blue of Charles' costume,
0:14:31 > 0:14:33Oliver's more sort of sober brown,
0:14:33 > 0:14:36which is sending a message in itself that Charles is maybe a bit vain and
0:14:36 > 0:14:40flamboyant, whereas Oliver is the kind of more morally serious one.
0:14:40 > 0:14:42It's just brilliant, I think, visually.
0:14:42 > 0:14:43So the combination of these vivid,
0:14:43 > 0:14:49vivid bright pictures and then this informative, detailed,
0:14:49 > 0:14:52factual text telling a powerful story,
0:14:52 > 0:14:55often with very powerfully sort of emotionally and morally
0:14:55 > 0:14:58charged messages - I think it's just a brilliant combination.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01It was as if you made friends with whoever it was.
0:15:01 > 0:15:02So, you would read this book,
0:15:02 > 0:15:06and you would really see things from Oliver Cromwell's point of view,
0:15:06 > 0:15:08but then you would read Charles II, and then you would see it
0:15:08 > 0:15:11from Charles II's point of view, and then so on and so forth.
0:15:13 > 0:15:17The illustrations were by commercial artist John Kenney.
0:15:17 > 0:15:19Kenney was wonderful at faces
0:15:19 > 0:15:22and could depict muskets, ships and costumes with accuracy.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28But he also understood drama,
0:15:28 > 0:15:31and could stir children's hearts with his paintbrush.
0:15:33 > 0:15:34I mean, look at this.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37This is an illustration of "the hail of arrows".
0:15:37 > 0:15:38It's a very rich picture.
0:15:38 > 0:15:40I mean, it's horrific.
0:15:40 > 0:15:42These are people being slaughtered
0:15:42 > 0:15:45in the most savage and incomprehensible way,
0:15:45 > 0:15:48but the illustration itself is just...amazing.
0:15:48 > 0:15:53Look at the horses with their mouths open, and people flailing about.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56I would look at this and I would imagine the horror,
0:15:56 > 0:16:02as a child, of being in amongst this turmoil of extreme violence.
0:16:02 > 0:16:04So, it appealed to me.
0:16:04 > 0:16:08Perhaps I didn't want to say that. But it did! It did!
0:16:11 > 0:16:14In this picture, Warwick has been summoned to a meeting,
0:16:14 > 0:16:17a sort of peacemaking meeting at Coventry,
0:16:17 > 0:16:19but he gets a sort of uneasy feeling,
0:16:19 > 0:16:21and then, this horseman gallops up,
0:16:21 > 0:16:23they're only just a few hundred yards from Coventry
0:16:23 > 0:16:25and he gallops up and he says,
0:16:25 > 0:16:29"Look, it's a trap, they're coming to get you."
0:16:29 > 0:16:31And, as Ladybird describes it,
0:16:31 > 0:16:33the men-at-arms were already visible,
0:16:33 > 0:16:37coming towards Warwick, and he turns his horse and gallops away.
0:16:37 > 0:16:40So, it was just incredibly exciting as a child.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43The death. Well, death is always interesting.
0:16:43 > 0:16:45You see him on death, having just been shot...
0:16:47 > 0:16:49..by the person high up in the...
0:16:50 > 0:16:53..in the sort of crossbeams of the...
0:16:54 > 0:16:55..French ship.
0:16:55 > 0:16:57The Adventures From History series
0:16:57 > 0:17:00inspired three generations to love history,
0:17:00 > 0:17:04and went on to sell 13 million copies.
0:17:04 > 0:17:08The books were emotional and partisan and made no bones about it.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10It really interests me now, as a professional historian.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13We have to ask, "Does history really matter
0:17:13 > 0:17:16"if there isn't any kind of human or moral dimension to it?"
0:17:16 > 0:17:18And, all right, I can now see, which I didn't at the time,
0:17:18 > 0:17:20that Ladybird were telling one version of a story,
0:17:20 > 0:17:22and there were lots of other versions
0:17:22 > 0:17:24which you could quite reasonably tell, as well,
0:17:24 > 0:17:28but I think the thing I loved, and even now I really like,
0:17:28 > 0:17:30is that they put their cards on the table
0:17:30 > 0:17:32and they tried to sort of show the human side of it.
0:17:38 > 0:17:40This is a book which weighs...
0:17:40 > 0:17:422oz or something,
0:17:42 > 0:17:47but it comes with an amazing sort of gravity of its own.
0:17:47 > 0:17:50And it's not just the object, of course,
0:17:50 > 0:17:53as I'm sitting holding it now, I can see the room in which I read it,
0:17:53 > 0:17:55which was my bedroom that I shared with my brother.
0:17:55 > 0:17:57I can see my mum who died young...
0:17:57 > 0:18:02um...just sort of moving around in the room.
0:18:02 > 0:18:04I can see the pictures on the wall,
0:18:04 > 0:18:06and these are the kind of things which...
0:18:06 > 0:18:09Well, it's a world, and very, very powerful.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15With both the Bird and History titles proving lucrative,
0:18:15 > 0:18:17Douglas Keen was given free rein
0:18:17 > 0:18:19to explore other educational ideas for Ladybirds.
0:18:21 > 0:18:23Looking for gaps in the market,
0:18:23 > 0:18:27Keen found himself drawn to the area of preschool learning.
0:18:27 > 0:18:29- REPORTER:- 'In this programme,
0:18:29 > 0:18:32'we're seeing how a child's early language development
0:18:32 > 0:18:35'develops in communication with its mother in the home.'
0:18:35 > 0:18:38The one about the three pigs, how does that record go?
0:18:39 > 0:18:42The one with the Big Bad Wolf?
0:18:42 > 0:18:44Yes, it's the story of the Big Bad Wolf...
0:18:45 > 0:18:48The 1950s was seeing a growth in interest
0:18:48 > 0:18:51in how very young children learned to read.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54Research was showing that if mothers engaged their infants
0:18:54 > 0:18:56with learning at home, it had a marked effect
0:18:56 > 0:18:59on how well children did when they went to school.
0:18:59 > 0:19:02Douglas Keen, with two daughters of his own,
0:19:02 > 0:19:05knew how big a part home could play.
0:19:05 > 0:19:08My father was aware that before children even get to school,
0:19:08 > 0:19:10what they've learned from their mother,
0:19:10 > 0:19:13and from reading with their mother, was going to be very important,
0:19:13 > 0:19:17and that what is most important is the attitude to reading.
0:19:17 > 0:19:21That a child who goes to school already enthusiastic about books,
0:19:21 > 0:19:25if not necessarily able to read, is at a huge advantage.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29Keen hired an early learning expert named Margaret Gagg,
0:19:29 > 0:19:31wife of the letter-writing John,
0:19:31 > 0:19:34to write a series of books for preschool children.
0:19:34 > 0:19:35In case you were wondering,
0:19:35 > 0:19:38the letters after her name don't stand for "National Farmers' Union".
0:19:38 > 0:19:41They stand for "National Froebel Union" -
0:19:41 > 0:19:43Froebel being the German educationalist
0:19:43 > 0:19:46who invented kindergarten.
0:19:46 > 0:19:47"Here is the fish shop..."
0:19:47 > 0:19:50Gagg used words which young readers would've found familiar
0:19:50 > 0:19:53and the illustrations were bright and involving.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57These books looked simple, but a lot of thought went into their design.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00As a teacher now, when I look at the words,
0:20:00 > 0:20:03what I really appreciate is the font.
0:20:03 > 0:20:08It's really unusual to have such an accessible font,
0:20:08 > 0:20:11for example, to make the letter A look like the sort of an A
0:20:11 > 0:20:13that a child could recognise.
0:20:13 > 0:20:15They cut off the top of a D.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18It was attention to detail like that
0:20:18 > 0:20:21which made it very, very easy on the eye.
0:20:24 > 0:20:28Shopping With Mother was illustrated by graphic designer Harry Wingfield.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31He lived in suburbia with his wife and two small children,
0:20:31 > 0:20:35and it was his everyday world that came through in his pictures.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40That was very new, because in the '50s and '60s,
0:20:40 > 0:20:41a lot of the suburbs were built
0:20:41 > 0:20:44and a lot of the people lived in suburbia,
0:20:44 > 0:20:46which had hitherto not been a world
0:20:46 > 0:20:49which was depicted at all in anything, really.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52You know, kitchen-sink drama of the '50s and so on
0:20:52 > 0:20:57was considered really weird, because it was an ordinary working world.
0:20:57 > 0:21:00"We are going shopping."
0:21:02 > 0:21:04Oh! What shop is this?
0:21:04 > 0:21:06The toy shop!
0:21:06 > 0:21:07The toy shop.
0:21:07 > 0:21:09Aw, look at that little bunny.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13For children, it was like looking in a mirror.
0:21:14 > 0:21:19Shopping With Mother was my trip with my mother to the shops.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22No question. I recognise the shops.
0:21:22 > 0:21:24I recognise the people in them.
0:21:24 > 0:21:26Every shop that they go to, I think,
0:21:26 > 0:21:29"Oh, yeah, that's like Mr So-and-so on the village green."
0:21:29 > 0:21:32There was a row, a parade of shops along one side of the heath,
0:21:32 > 0:21:35and they all looked exactly like this.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38There wasn't a chemist there, but the grocer looked exactly the same.
0:21:38 > 0:21:40I mean, it might as well be me, really,
0:21:40 > 0:21:44looking in through this shop window. He even looks a bit like me.
0:21:44 > 0:21:46I had a school blazer like that
0:21:46 > 0:21:49with stuff around the edges,
0:21:49 > 0:21:52and I do remember girls with those little coats.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55The fashion is absolutely spot-on.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59These pencil-like slim models
0:21:59 > 0:22:03wearing this sort of suit with the nipped-in waist,
0:22:03 > 0:22:07and those mushroom-like hats sitting on the top of their heads -
0:22:07 > 0:22:10those are so familiar. She is Little Miss Average.
0:22:12 > 0:22:16Harry Wingfield used popular '50s icons as source material.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19The effect this had was curious.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22It made his Ladybird books look exactly like real life,
0:22:22 > 0:22:24but with extra gloss.
0:22:25 > 0:22:28- SHE SIGHS - Ladybird Land...
0:22:28 > 0:22:31It's a place we all wanted to be, really.
0:22:31 > 0:22:32The sun shines,
0:22:32 > 0:22:34everything works.
0:22:34 > 0:22:37Everything is kind of in Technicolor.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40It's like watching a... watching a film.
0:22:44 > 0:22:46People are decent to each other,
0:22:46 > 0:22:48and you know where you are,
0:22:48 > 0:22:50and nothing can harm children.
0:22:51 > 0:22:52The postman smiles.
0:22:52 > 0:22:54The policeman smiles,
0:22:54 > 0:22:56adults are there to help children orient
0:22:56 > 0:22:59and find their way around the world.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02Ladybird books in general began to accentuate the positive
0:23:02 > 0:23:07and eliminate the negative. Everything in their world was good.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10If roads are built, it will be great. There will be more prosperity
0:23:10 > 0:23:12and then more people will be able to work,
0:23:12 > 0:23:14building nuclear power stations and running shops.
0:23:14 > 0:23:16And that's good. It's pre-consumerism.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19So, the idea that all of this is going to gobble up the planet
0:23:19 > 0:23:21and kill everybody could not be further away
0:23:21 > 0:23:25from the consciousness that presides in the Ladybird universe.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30The Learning To Read series was another huge success.
0:23:30 > 0:23:33In 1958, Douglas Keen was promoted.
0:23:33 > 0:23:35He became creative director,
0:23:35 > 0:23:38and he based himself at home in Stratford-upon-Avon.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41Here, he held his editorial meetings with the experts
0:23:41 > 0:23:43he needed for each book.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48My father felt a big degree of personal responsibility
0:23:48 > 0:23:51for accuracy and authenticity in the books.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55One of the reasons he was always very, very determined
0:23:55 > 0:23:58to get the best possible expert on any subject
0:23:58 > 0:24:02was so that he knew, then, that he could rely on the information there.
0:24:02 > 0:24:04Facts were important,
0:24:04 > 0:24:07but it was the artwork that was captivating children.
0:24:07 > 0:24:09More and more, Keen relied on illustrators
0:24:09 > 0:24:12who could make information exciting.
0:24:12 > 0:24:14He was very clever in finding artists
0:24:14 > 0:24:18who were really good at getting their detail right.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21The detail had to be spot-on, with the clothing,
0:24:21 > 0:24:24of background buildings and so on.
0:24:24 > 0:24:28And the pictures had to be really interesting compositions -
0:24:28 > 0:24:31absolutely packed full of stuff happening.
0:24:34 > 0:24:37As each new series of books went ahead,
0:24:37 > 0:24:40so new artists turned up at the Stratford house.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44For the People At Work series, Keen brought in John Berry,
0:24:44 > 0:24:47a former war artist with a very photographic eye.
0:24:48 > 0:24:54John Berry was exceptionally good at working very accurately.
0:24:54 > 0:24:57So, if there was any technical books,
0:24:57 > 0:25:00my father would ask John Berry to do the illustrations,
0:25:00 > 0:25:02because he knew that he loved
0:25:02 > 0:25:05working with that detail of accuracy.
0:25:05 > 0:25:10I remember John Berry as being one of the most exciting of the artists.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13He was quite an exuberant Cockney.
0:25:13 > 0:25:15He stayed overnight on several occasions.
0:25:15 > 0:25:19My sister remembers taking him a cup of tea one morning
0:25:19 > 0:25:22and seeing him sitting up in bed bare-chested and smoking.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25And I think this image has stayed with her!
0:25:27 > 0:25:29Douglas Keen's younger daughter Caroline
0:25:29 > 0:25:32was photographed by the illustrator Harry Wingfield
0:25:32 > 0:25:35who used her as the model for Magnets, Bulbs And Batteries
0:25:35 > 0:25:36and The Lord's Prayer.
0:25:37 > 0:25:39The Lord's Prayer came first,
0:25:39 > 0:25:41I was about nine or ten
0:25:41 > 0:25:45when Harry Wingfield came down and photographed me for that one,
0:25:45 > 0:25:48and then that followed on with the Science series.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54A number of illustrators came from the Eagle comic,
0:25:54 > 0:25:57including the brilliant creator of the Dan Dare strip, Frank Hampson,
0:25:57 > 0:26:00who brought a rather sinister frisson
0:26:00 > 0:26:03to the Ladybird Books Of Nursery Rhymes.
0:26:03 > 0:26:07Frank Hampson saw things from the most peculiar angles.
0:26:08 > 0:26:12So, you'll have pictures of the three blind mice,
0:26:12 > 0:26:15and you're looking from the floor up at the mice.
0:26:15 > 0:26:17You know, Doctor Foster,
0:26:17 > 0:26:21terrifying character floundering in your eye line to the water.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29One of the most prestigious artists Keen employed
0:26:29 > 0:26:32was Charles F Tunnicliffe, a Royal Academician
0:26:32 > 0:26:34who was invited, in the late 1950s,
0:26:34 > 0:26:37to create a series of books about the countryside.
0:26:38 > 0:26:40I was surprised...
0:26:41 > 0:26:44..to see Charles Tunnicliffe in a Ladybird book,
0:26:44 > 0:26:48because I always knew him as a wildlife artist.
0:26:48 > 0:26:53And it was one of the first times that I realised that serious artists
0:26:53 > 0:26:55also were illustrators.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06What I liked about these was that the scenes were very real.
0:27:06 > 0:27:10And within the Ladybird book, given what it needed to achieve,
0:27:10 > 0:27:13which was to have a diversity. I mean, look at this one here.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17You've got a couple of tree species, you've got beech and oak.
0:27:17 > 0:27:18You've got some ferns.
0:27:18 > 0:27:20You've got at least three or four species of fungi.
0:27:20 > 0:27:22You've got some pheasants on the fence.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25This isn't something that's been done casually in five minutes.
0:27:25 > 0:27:28Tunnicliffe has put as much effort into this illustration
0:27:28 > 0:27:31as he did any of his greater works.
0:27:33 > 0:27:37This one here is one of my favourites.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40It's from What To Look For In Winter and it shows a seed drill.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43But the thing that I absolutely love about it
0:27:43 > 0:27:46is the perspective that Tunnicliffe has adopted.
0:27:46 > 0:27:48And I think it's just stunningly original because it's seen
0:27:48 > 0:27:50from the wood pigeons' perspective.
0:27:54 > 0:27:56Tunnicliffe's illustrations for the What To Look For series
0:27:56 > 0:28:00were not simple representations of the countryside.
0:28:00 > 0:28:03They were painted with a much more knowing eye.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06The '50s and '60s were a period of rural upheaval.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10They marked the changeover from the old agricultural ways to the new.
0:28:12 > 0:28:14- REPORTER: - 'Each field is tested daily,
0:28:14 > 0:28:17'the crops' tenderness is scientifically measured
0:28:17 > 0:28:20'and the peas are gathered at the moment of maximum sweetness.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22'So, automation extends to the farm
0:28:22 > 0:28:25'and it's your dinner table that benefits.'
0:28:26 > 0:28:29These sweeping changes were a much-debated topic.
0:28:29 > 0:28:33Modernisers argued that factory farming was the future.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36Traditionalists lamented the passing of the old ways.
0:28:36 > 0:28:42Tunnicliffe's illustrations told children that both could coexist.
0:28:42 > 0:28:46The question of where mechanisation fits into rural life,
0:28:46 > 0:28:49and whether, actually, it's a natural part of rural life
0:28:49 > 0:28:52or whether it's some kind of alien, urban intrusion into rural life
0:28:52 > 0:28:54is a really hot issue at this time.
0:28:54 > 0:28:58One of the things which the What To Look For books were trying to do
0:28:58 > 0:29:02was to suggest that nature and farming went hand-in-hand together.
0:29:02 > 0:29:04So, it seems to me the seed drill
0:29:04 > 0:29:07harmonises perfectly with the rural scene.
0:29:07 > 0:29:11It's these soft, muted blue and grey colours. The brown of the fields,
0:29:11 > 0:29:13look at the brown of the man bending over the seed drill.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16So, it's a vision of perfect harmony, and in many ways,
0:29:16 > 0:29:19I think that was actually really quite innovative,
0:29:19 > 0:29:22because it's not just taking a nostalgic view of the countryside,
0:29:22 > 0:29:25but trying to come to terms with the real facts of change
0:29:25 > 0:29:26in the countryside.
0:29:26 > 0:29:29This is really all about justifying the ways of modern farming
0:29:29 > 0:29:31to Ladybird readers.
0:29:37 > 0:29:39What To Look For In Winter
0:29:39 > 0:29:43was followed by What To Look For In Spring, Summer and Autumn.
0:29:43 > 0:29:46Each book, a seasonal snapshot of small facts.
0:29:47 > 0:29:50Spring is when deer have their young.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53Autumn is when whooper swans migrate.
0:29:56 > 0:29:58"The lake is partly frozen.
0:29:58 > 0:30:00"Where the water has been kept in motion
0:30:00 > 0:30:02"by the swimming movements of the ducks,
0:30:02 > 0:30:04"ice has not been able to form,
0:30:04 > 0:30:07"and so they have made for themselves pools
0:30:07 > 0:30:10"in which they can dive to look for things to eat.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14"Standing on the ice are mallards - both drakes and ducks.
0:30:14 > 0:30:16"In the pool near, are widgeon,
0:30:16 > 0:30:18"and in the distance, tufted duck.
0:30:18 > 0:30:22"These birds move about in flocks in winter,
0:30:22 > 0:30:23"from one pond or lake to another,
0:30:23 > 0:30:25"and often, the flocks mingle."
0:30:28 > 0:30:32Published in the heyday of primary school nature corners
0:30:32 > 0:30:34and weekend family rambles,
0:30:34 > 0:30:35these books were all part
0:30:35 > 0:30:38of helping children stay in touch with the land.
0:30:41 > 0:30:43I saw a TV programme once
0:30:43 > 0:30:47where children thought milk came from milkmen.
0:30:47 > 0:30:50They didn't know it came from cows.
0:30:50 > 0:30:54So, there was probably an earnest feeling,
0:30:54 > 0:30:58on the part of Ladybird - who, at heart, are educators,
0:30:58 > 0:30:59as well as storytellers -
0:30:59 > 0:31:03to show children what the countryside is like.
0:31:03 > 0:31:05And Tunnicliffe...
0:31:05 > 0:31:07was a perfect choice for that,
0:31:07 > 0:31:10because Tunnicliffe understood the countryside.
0:31:10 > 0:31:12He was a country man.
0:31:12 > 0:31:13He was a country man at heart.
0:31:19 > 0:31:21As more and more titles were devised,
0:31:21 > 0:31:23more top-flight illustrators
0:31:23 > 0:31:25lent their creativity to the Ladybird brand.
0:31:26 > 0:31:31Martin Aitchison was a master of character,
0:31:31 > 0:31:34Ronald Lampitt had an eye for landscape and maps,
0:31:34 > 0:31:39Frank Humphris could capture every detail of the Wild West,
0:31:39 > 0:31:41and Robert Ayton and G Robinson
0:31:41 > 0:31:43made children just love making things.
0:31:52 > 0:31:57Douglas Keen now found himself at the heart of factual publishing
0:31:57 > 0:31:59at a very exciting time.
0:31:59 > 0:32:02So much was being built and invented and discovered
0:32:02 > 0:32:05that books explaining what was going on were in demand
0:32:05 > 0:32:08by children fascinated by the promise of the future.
0:32:10 > 0:32:12Not that everyone thought that this was a good thing...
0:32:14 > 0:32:15Good evening.
0:32:15 > 0:32:18Christmas, you may have heard, is coming.
0:32:18 > 0:32:22And probably some millions of dads and mums and uncles and aunts
0:32:22 > 0:32:26all over the country are now thinking about children's books.
0:32:26 > 0:32:28But out of the thousands of books laid before us
0:32:28 > 0:32:30for children at Christmas time,
0:32:30 > 0:32:34do we really know any more what the modern child wants to read?
0:32:34 > 0:32:37Are the old classics, Treasure Island and Kidnapped
0:32:37 > 0:32:40and Little Women and Black Beauty and so on still favourites?
0:32:43 > 0:32:46Douglas Keen had his own response to that.
0:32:46 > 0:32:49In 1964, he launched a fiction series
0:32:49 > 0:32:52featuring old European fairytales.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56They were retold in classic Ladybird style.
0:32:56 > 0:32:59"Once upon a time", well, that's always a good way to begin.
0:32:59 > 0:33:02"There was a little girl called Cinderella. Her mother was dead,
0:33:02 > 0:33:04"and she lived with her father and her two elders."
0:33:04 > 0:33:06I mean, that's absolutely it. Bang, bang, bang.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09"When the dwarf caught sight of Snow-White and Rose-Red,
0:33:09 > 0:33:11"he shouted, 'You ugly creatures!
0:33:11 > 0:33:13"'Why do you stand there staring instead of trying to help me?'"
0:33:13 > 0:33:16And he is horrible, by the way. He is just horrible.
0:33:16 > 0:33:18He used to scare me.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21"Cinderella's elder sisters were beautiful and fair of face but,
0:33:21 > 0:33:23"because they were bad-tempered and unkind,
0:33:23 > 0:33:24"their faces grew to look ugly."
0:33:24 > 0:33:27An Orwellian perception,
0:33:27 > 0:33:28as it turns out.
0:33:30 > 0:33:32The Well-Loved Tales series
0:33:32 > 0:33:34is a bit of a phenomenon, honestly, I think.
0:33:36 > 0:33:40Adored, strangely adored by...
0:33:40 > 0:33:44sort of two or three generations of people who grew up with them.
0:33:44 > 0:33:48My daughter, when she was tiny, had this edition,
0:33:48 > 0:33:50which ended up like lots of her Ladybird books,
0:33:50 > 0:33:53with the spine dropped off,
0:33:53 > 0:33:56and the pages became a bit dirty
0:33:56 > 0:34:00and there was often cornflakes and things stuck in there.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03But this is just evidence of a child loving a book,
0:34:03 > 0:34:07having it, using it. It was just a wonderful toy.
0:34:09 > 0:34:14"The ugly sisters made Cinderella do all the work in the house.
0:34:14 > 0:34:17"She carried coal for the fire, cooked the meals,
0:34:17 > 0:34:20"washed the dishes, scrubbed and mended the clothes,
0:34:20 > 0:34:23"swept the floor and dusted the furniture.
0:34:23 > 0:34:27"She worked from morning till night, without stopping."
0:34:28 > 0:34:29To write the books,
0:34:29 > 0:34:33Keen hired an educationalist called Vera Southgate.
0:34:33 > 0:34:38Her task was to render each fairy tale down to 26 small pages.
0:34:38 > 0:34:42What's important to a child is not quite what's important to an adult.
0:34:42 > 0:34:43You know, major plot points,
0:34:43 > 0:34:45you have to reach all those milestones,
0:34:45 > 0:34:47but you also have to say things like,
0:34:47 > 0:34:50"Snow-White and Rose-Red kept their mother's cottage
0:34:50 > 0:34:53"so clean and tidy that it was a pleasure to go into it."
0:34:53 > 0:34:55And immediately, you're there in this perfect little world,
0:34:55 > 0:34:57and that's very important
0:34:57 > 0:35:00for the interruption of the advent of evil into it.
0:35:02 > 0:35:05It's such an art, keeping the right level of detail
0:35:05 > 0:35:10without sort of clogging up the train of thought or the narrative.
0:35:11 > 0:35:16And staying within your 56 or whatever page...boundaries...
0:35:17 > 0:35:20I shouldn't open these books, while I'm talking,
0:35:20 > 0:35:22because I lose the thread because I start reading!
0:35:26 > 0:35:29The series was shared between two illustrators,
0:35:29 > 0:35:31Eric Winter and Robert Lumley.
0:35:31 > 0:35:33They stuck to the Ladybird formula
0:35:33 > 0:35:36of the picture helping the words along for young readers.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42I was talking to somebody recently who was being very snippy
0:35:42 > 0:35:47about the illustrations, and I think lots of people are snippy
0:35:47 > 0:35:49who didn't grow up with the pictures.
0:35:49 > 0:35:51Saying that they're too graphic, they're too visual,
0:35:51 > 0:35:54they leave nothing for the imagination.
0:35:54 > 0:35:57Realistic illustration is good for very young children,
0:35:57 > 0:36:01because they are not good at interpreting pictures.
0:36:01 > 0:36:07But for pictures to look as if they're like photographs -
0:36:07 > 0:36:12real people - a child immediately homes in on that
0:36:12 > 0:36:16and can understand and read the illustrations perfectly clearly.
0:36:16 > 0:36:18I can just remember looking at
0:36:18 > 0:36:22a picture of Cinderella weeping into her handkerchief
0:36:22 > 0:36:25and thinking this was just such a beautiful picture,
0:36:25 > 0:36:27and I remember asking my mum,
0:36:27 > 0:36:31"Why is the Mona Lisa a famous picture and not this picture?
0:36:31 > 0:36:33"Why do people queue to see the Mona Lisa
0:36:33 > 0:36:36"and nobody queues to see that? Why?"
0:36:39 > 0:36:43The '60s was a period of wild innovation in book illustration.
0:36:43 > 0:36:47Artists like Brian Wildsmith, Ralph Steadman and Quentin Blake
0:36:47 > 0:36:51became known for their unique styles.
0:36:51 > 0:36:56But I don't think that you could look at one of these and say,
0:36:56 > 0:36:58"Oh, there is a...
0:36:58 > 0:37:00"Hmm... Eric Winter..."
0:37:00 > 0:37:06in the way Wildsmith or people like Ralph Steadman.
0:37:06 > 0:37:08At Ladybird, all illustrators and authors
0:37:08 > 0:37:11were entirely at the service of the brand.
0:37:11 > 0:37:15And the thing I've only just noticed about all these Ladybird books -
0:37:15 > 0:37:18with the Well-Loved Tales, especially -
0:37:18 > 0:37:21is that they don't have any author on the outside.
0:37:21 > 0:37:23And I think they were...
0:37:23 > 0:37:25Yeah, they were all retold
0:37:25 > 0:37:29by Vera Southgate - MA BCom - on the inside.
0:37:31 > 0:37:34I presume... Again, it's the branding,
0:37:34 > 0:37:37it's THIS that you're looking for,
0:37:37 > 0:37:40and this bit is the bit you trust, and...and want to find.
0:37:45 > 0:37:50The Well-Loved Tales added to the growing library of Ladybirds.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53Every week, tens of thousands of them flew into the bookshops
0:37:53 > 0:37:55and then out again almost as quickly.
0:37:58 > 0:38:01Ladybirds were sold, not just in bookshops,
0:38:01 > 0:38:04they were sold in corner stores, chemists...
0:38:04 > 0:38:08Places where people went to do other things.
0:38:08 > 0:38:10So, a kid would have their pocket money,
0:38:10 > 0:38:13or they would be there with their mother or father or their granny,
0:38:13 > 0:38:15and they'd pick up a Ladybird book.
0:38:15 > 0:38:18It would be something that a lot of people did once a week.
0:38:20 > 0:38:23After all this time, a Ladybird book still cost
0:38:23 > 0:38:25just two shillings and sixpence.
0:38:25 > 0:38:28It was important because two and six was a single coin,
0:38:28 > 0:38:31and it was what a lot of children got for their pocket money.
0:38:31 > 0:38:32I did, at that time.
0:38:32 > 0:38:33With the price so low,
0:38:33 > 0:38:37the way publishers Wills & Hepworth made money
0:38:37 > 0:38:39was by sheer volume of sales.
0:38:39 > 0:38:42There are about 700 of them or so,
0:38:42 > 0:38:44so there were an awful lot to choose from.
0:38:44 > 0:38:46And people collected series.
0:38:48 > 0:38:50Once you got one, you got another one,
0:38:50 > 0:38:53and then you put them together on shelf,
0:38:53 > 0:38:55and I'm OCD, and probably always have been,
0:38:55 > 0:38:58so then it meant having another one, and another one, and another one.
0:38:58 > 0:39:00Then you had your wildlife section,
0:39:00 > 0:39:02then you had your history section,
0:39:02 > 0:39:04and then you had your science section -
0:39:04 > 0:39:06weather, and other stuff like that, you know?
0:39:06 > 0:39:10And then, there were a few oddities - Underwater Exploration,
0:39:10 > 0:39:12and The Seashore which fitted in.
0:39:12 > 0:39:17And I liked having a whole stack of MY books together.
0:39:18 > 0:39:22Producing such a wide array of titles was a lot of work.
0:39:22 > 0:39:25With so many books to proofread and check for error,
0:39:25 > 0:39:28Douglas Keen once again roped his family in to help.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32My mother used to proof-check books, and I used to, as well.
0:39:32 > 0:39:36Right from the original stage when you'd have the first...the text,
0:39:36 > 0:39:39just sort of type-written out on big A4 sheets,
0:39:39 > 0:39:41and then you'd have the pack of drawings
0:39:41 > 0:39:43that would come through from the artists.
0:39:43 > 0:39:48And we'd go through and I'd be looking at the texts,
0:39:48 > 0:39:50looking at the illustrations,
0:39:50 > 0:39:51making sure that they all tallied.
0:39:51 > 0:39:53And...
0:39:53 > 0:39:55Yeah, I'm sure it was very good for my reading!
0:39:55 > 0:39:57SHE LAUGHS
0:40:01 > 0:40:05For anyone who loved and worked with books as the Keens did,
0:40:05 > 0:40:07illiteracy was an unimaginable handicap.
0:40:07 > 0:40:11But then, as now, some children found reading extremely difficult.
0:40:13 > 0:40:17Mother thought I'd just be able to sit down and start to read,
0:40:17 > 0:40:20just like that, without any trouble at all,
0:40:20 > 0:40:24but it came as a big surprise to me when I found I couldn't.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29Research was highlighting that 10% of children
0:40:29 > 0:40:32were failing to read by the time they left primary school -
0:40:32 > 0:40:34a matter of concern for all involved.
0:40:36 > 0:40:39I've been studying this over the past six years,
0:40:39 > 0:40:41and I find, quite conclusively,
0:40:41 > 0:40:45that children who are very backward at the age of seven
0:40:45 > 0:40:48remain backward throughout their school life,
0:40:48 > 0:40:51no matter what is done about it.
0:40:51 > 0:40:52The determination to help
0:40:52 > 0:40:55what were then known as "backward" or "remedial" children
0:40:55 > 0:40:59was such that there was no shortage of learning schemes.
0:40:59 > 0:41:01Hopes were high for one new concept
0:41:01 > 0:41:05called the Initial Teaching Alphabet or ITA.
0:41:05 > 0:41:07Yesterday, in the House Of Commons,
0:41:07 > 0:41:10the Minister Of Education Sir Edward Boyle, gave ministerial approval
0:41:10 > 0:41:12to an experiment that, in the years to come,
0:41:12 > 0:41:15could well affect the life of every child in the country -
0:41:15 > 0:41:17the use of a new alphabet.
0:41:17 > 0:41:20Now then, I'm going to try some harder words now,
0:41:20 > 0:41:22let's see if you can get these.
0:41:22 > 0:41:23What about that one?
0:41:23 > 0:41:25ALL: Nymph.
0:41:25 > 0:41:26- Nymph.- Nymph.
0:41:26 > 0:41:28Nymph. That's right.
0:41:28 > 0:41:30And this one?
0:41:30 > 0:41:32ALL: Soldier.
0:41:34 > 0:41:37Ladybird printed some of their books using ITA,
0:41:37 > 0:41:41though not with any great conviction, nor in any great number,
0:41:41 > 0:41:43and they did not sell well.
0:41:43 > 0:41:48ITA was just one of many fashionable theories being tried out.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51Each class I went to seemed to have a different idea
0:41:51 > 0:41:54of teaching me to read than the other
0:41:54 > 0:41:56and I kept on getting mixed up.
0:41:56 > 0:41:58They were all very helpful,
0:41:58 > 0:42:01but they just had these different ideas of how to teach to read.
0:42:01 > 0:42:06A man called William Murray was also looking for a clear way forward.
0:42:06 > 0:42:10Murray was headmaster of a remedial school in Cheltenham
0:42:10 > 0:42:12working with young delinquents -
0:42:12 > 0:42:14nearly all of whom had literacy problems.
0:42:14 > 0:42:16He was at the sharp end,
0:42:16 > 0:42:20because he was teaching young men who had failed.
0:42:20 > 0:42:25And you had to find ways of getting through to these young people,
0:42:25 > 0:42:29and then, what should they be learning, then?
0:42:29 > 0:42:31What are the most used words?
0:42:33 > 0:42:35William Murray and his colleague, Joe McNally,
0:42:35 > 0:42:38found that, in the English language, there are...
0:42:38 > 0:42:41- CHILD:- ..400,000 words...
0:42:41 > 0:42:43..but most of us use only...
0:42:43 > 0:42:46- CHILD:- ..20,000 words...
0:42:46 > 0:42:48..in everyday speech, and of these, just...
0:42:48 > 0:42:50- CHILD:- ..300 words...
0:42:50 > 0:42:52..are the most common.
0:42:52 > 0:42:55But the killer finding of their research
0:42:55 > 0:42:58was that you could narrow down the amount of words needed
0:42:58 > 0:42:59to begin to read to just 12.
0:42:59 > 0:43:02- CHILD:- Only 12?!
0:43:02 > 0:43:07Yes, 12 key words make up 25% of a child's vocabulary,
0:43:07 > 0:43:10which was a breakthrough piece of research.
0:43:15 > 0:43:19And soon after this, at an education conference,
0:43:19 > 0:43:21William Murray met Douglas Keen.
0:43:22 > 0:43:27My father learned about the Key Words concept from William Murray,
0:43:27 > 0:43:32and was very attracted to that idea because it had an aura of...
0:43:32 > 0:43:36A scientific basis for something
0:43:36 > 0:43:39which could become a commercial reality.
0:43:40 > 0:43:45After much discussion, Keen and Murray came up with an agreement.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49From 1964, Wills & Hepworth would roll out 36 titles -
0:43:49 > 0:43:53three for each of the 12 stages of the Key Word Reading Scheme.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56A huge commitment.
0:43:56 > 0:43:58It was such a risk
0:43:58 > 0:44:03because of having to publish so many titles all in one go
0:44:03 > 0:44:07and take a leap of faith that this was going to be a scheme
0:44:07 > 0:44:10that teachers were going to say, "Yes, this is the right one."
0:44:10 > 0:44:12This was the way to teach children.
0:44:14 > 0:44:18Another issue was that 12 words don't make a story.
0:44:18 > 0:44:20So, the scheme was made workable
0:44:20 > 0:44:22through the idea of a domestic setting.
0:44:22 > 0:44:24Two children, Peter and Jane,
0:44:24 > 0:44:28and their faithful red setter, Pat the dog,
0:44:28 > 0:44:31led the familiar Ladybird lifestyle,
0:44:31 > 0:44:33a glorious version of normality.
0:44:34 > 0:44:38It was Harry Wingfield who first painted the world of Peter and Jane,
0:44:38 > 0:44:40and then other Ladybird illustrators,
0:44:40 > 0:44:41chiefly Martin Aitchison,
0:44:41 > 0:44:44were brought in to help with the workload.
0:44:46 > 0:44:48There is no artist like Martin Aitchison, I think,
0:44:48 > 0:44:49for being a chameleon.
0:44:49 > 0:44:52And those first pictures of Wingfield,
0:44:52 > 0:44:55Martin then took up the baton and...
0:44:56 > 0:44:58..you know, even if you're very accustomed
0:44:58 > 0:45:01to looking at the artwork, he did a very, very good job.
0:45:06 > 0:45:09In the early books, the pictures worked harder than the words,
0:45:09 > 0:45:12but the main thing was they worked.
0:45:13 > 0:45:17You read the pictures just like you read the words.
0:45:17 > 0:45:20Peter. Peter.
0:45:20 > 0:45:23The child will know that's Peter.
0:45:25 > 0:45:28Now you know the principle,
0:45:28 > 0:45:32so now you know that's Jane,
0:45:32 > 0:45:37so now you know what Jane looks like, the word looks like.
0:45:37 > 0:45:39And that very simple basis, I suppose,
0:45:39 > 0:45:41is the basis of all reading,
0:45:41 > 0:45:45recognising a word and understanding what it stands for.
0:45:48 > 0:45:52Here is Peter and here is Jane.
0:45:54 > 0:45:57Peter is here and Jane is here.
0:45:59 > 0:46:01It was tremendously successful.
0:46:01 > 0:46:04I grew up learning to read with Peter and Jane.
0:46:04 > 0:46:06Everybody my age did.
0:46:06 > 0:46:11For decades, Peter and Jane were synonymous with learning to read.
0:46:11 > 0:46:15- What...- Yes.- ..will...- Mmm.
0:46:15 > 0:46:19..you...do,
0:46:19 > 0:46:23- read or...- Yes.
0:46:23 > 0:46:25..draw?
0:46:25 > 0:46:27Well, the reaction was enormous
0:46:27 > 0:46:31because the books were selling so quickly
0:46:31 > 0:46:34and it was taken on in schools but also it was very,
0:46:34 > 0:46:36very popular with parents.
0:46:36 > 0:46:40It was very accessible and within no time at all, well,
0:46:40 > 0:46:45fairly quickly, we were talking about millions of books being sold,
0:46:45 > 0:46:48rather than tens of thousands of books being sold.
0:46:50 > 0:46:54I think people actually undervalue the role they played in the
0:46:54 > 0:46:56literacy of that era.
0:46:56 > 0:47:00How fundamentally they were wrapped up with concepts about
0:47:00 > 0:47:02learning to read.
0:47:05 > 0:47:07Peter and Jane were more successful
0:47:07 > 0:47:09than Douglas Keen could have dreamt.
0:47:09 > 0:47:13Ladybird's yearly turnover leapt from £1 million to five million.
0:47:13 > 0:47:15By the late '60s,
0:47:15 > 0:47:17over half the primary schools in Britain were using them to
0:47:17 > 0:47:21teach literacy and the scheme was launched in other languages.
0:47:21 > 0:47:26The whole Peter and Jane series was produced in Welsh
0:47:26 > 0:47:31and then in Irish and in Gaelic.
0:47:31 > 0:47:34And a range of titles whose content could translate to other cultures
0:47:34 > 0:47:37were published abroad as well.
0:47:37 > 0:47:39All sorts of languages were produced.
0:47:39 > 0:47:43They were sold in Afrikaans, there was Maltese, there was Serbian.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46At home, the brand was now part of the culture.
0:47:46 > 0:47:49Everyone knew the books and what they stood for.
0:47:49 > 0:47:54Ah, Betty, this flying book has got all the pilots' language in it.
0:47:54 > 0:47:58Negative, positive, affirmative. I'm going to learn all this.
0:47:58 > 0:48:01In Parliament, Mr James Plaskitt MP taunted
0:48:01 > 0:48:04a member of the opposition, saying, "I can conclude only that
0:48:04 > 0:48:07"he's misread his Ladybird book of economics."
0:48:07 > 0:48:09Here, here.
0:48:11 > 0:48:14Apocryphal stories began to circulate about the use of
0:48:14 > 0:48:16Ladybirds in the grown-up world.
0:48:16 > 0:48:20I know for a fact that people who, in their professional lives, have
0:48:20 > 0:48:26used Ladybird books to learn how to do things, computing for example.
0:48:26 > 0:48:30The hovercraft is used by technicians on the hovercrafts now.
0:48:32 > 0:48:35The Understanding Maps book was indeed used by the Army in
0:48:35 > 0:48:39the Falklands War for teaching map reading to soldiers.
0:48:41 > 0:48:44Even the police were rumoured to have taught cadets car maintenance
0:48:44 > 0:48:47with a Ladybird book.
0:48:49 > 0:48:54In 1971, Wills & Hepworth changed its name to Ladybird Books Ltd
0:48:54 > 0:48:57and two years later, when sales reached 20 million books a year,
0:48:57 > 0:49:01Keen and the other directors sold the company.
0:49:01 > 0:49:05My father didn't want to leave it until he was 65.
0:49:05 > 0:49:07He wanted to retire a little bit before then,
0:49:07 > 0:49:10simply because he wanted to have time to do some of the things
0:49:10 > 0:49:12that he was so interested in doing.
0:49:14 > 0:49:17With Keen gone, what would happen to the brand that had been
0:49:17 > 0:49:19so much his personal vision?
0:49:19 > 0:49:22The answer was not long in coming.
0:49:22 > 0:49:26Once Long & Pearson took over,
0:49:26 > 0:49:33there was an initiative to use different typefaces,
0:49:33 > 0:49:38to use more cartoon-like forms of illustration, to use sitography.
0:49:42 > 0:49:43They became much more uniform.
0:49:43 > 0:49:47They sort of lost that individuality that the artists could bring them
0:49:47 > 0:49:51and they became just very sort of quotidian objects.
0:49:51 > 0:49:53They just looked like anything. They looked like a catalogue.
0:49:53 > 0:49:55They looked like a leaflet you could pick up in a bank.
0:49:55 > 0:49:59They didn't look like a lovely magical world any longer.
0:49:59 > 0:50:03At the same time, the Ladybird generations were growing up,
0:50:03 > 0:50:06their old books being given or thrown away.
0:50:06 > 0:50:09Once cherished, these were now looking rather tired and old hat
0:50:09 > 0:50:13and the new owners of Ladybird thought that too.
0:50:13 > 0:50:14In the early '80s,
0:50:14 > 0:50:18they gave the Adventures From History series a modern makeover.
0:50:18 > 0:50:22Pictures such as these have shaped the first images of history
0:50:22 > 0:50:24for 13 million young people.
0:50:24 > 0:50:27Alas, the vagaries of fashion are finally catching up with
0:50:27 > 0:50:31L. Du Garde Peach and Ladybird are rewriting their history books.
0:50:31 > 0:50:35These trenchant views are obviously thought too strong for today's youth
0:50:35 > 0:50:38and his purple prose has been doctored to produce a blander,
0:50:38 > 0:50:39more balanced view.
0:50:39 > 0:50:41Peach on George I -
0:50:41 > 0:50:44"He was a very stupid man and, as he never
0:50:44 > 0:50:48"took the trouble to speak English, he was unpopular with everyone.
0:50:48 > 0:50:51"As a king, he was completely unimportant."
0:50:51 > 0:50:54Of the revised Peach -
0:50:54 > 0:50:58"George I could speak no English and never bothered to learn
0:50:58 > 0:51:01"and so his place at meetings of government ministers was
0:51:01 > 0:51:04"taken over by a chief or prime minister."
0:51:04 > 0:51:06Do you like Peach as a historian?
0:51:06 > 0:51:10Yes, I have my doubts as to whether one ought to rate him as
0:51:10 > 0:51:13a historian as such, or whether one perhaps ought to look upon him
0:51:13 > 0:51:15as being a publicist.
0:51:15 > 0:51:19But, for what he was doing, I think there's a lot to admire in the man.
0:51:19 > 0:51:21What do you think he was doing?
0:51:21 > 0:51:23What were these 13 million copies achieving?
0:51:23 > 0:51:25Selling history.
0:51:25 > 0:51:28So would your advice be to the publishers and to those who
0:51:28 > 0:51:31think that Peach may be a little bit ripe here and there?
0:51:31 > 0:51:36I think I would keep Peach because what the man was doing
0:51:36 > 0:51:40successfully with 13-and-a-half million sales, was arousing
0:51:40 > 0:51:43interest and that is something which I think must be kept.
0:51:46 > 0:51:50By the 1990s, boxes of Ladybirds could be spotted in charity shops
0:51:50 > 0:51:51and boot sales.
0:51:51 > 0:51:55You could pick up a second hand copy for next to nothing,
0:51:55 > 0:51:57which is when people started to collect them.
0:51:59 > 0:52:03When my son was about a year old,
0:52:03 > 0:52:06someone gave me a battered old bin bag full of books that they
0:52:06 > 0:52:09were going to chuck out and in there were some falling apart
0:52:09 > 0:52:14editions of I think Shopping With Mother and a Talk About book.
0:52:14 > 0:52:17And I got them out and looked through them
0:52:17 > 0:52:22and my son noticed the pictures and responded to them in a way
0:52:22 > 0:52:27that he hadn't really responded to books before.
0:52:27 > 0:52:31It was something about the artwork was different and my brain started
0:52:31 > 0:52:34buzzing and I started thinking of more books and you read them
0:52:34 > 0:52:37and you realise they're a series and you realise they're numbered and
0:52:37 > 0:52:42you think there must be more books in the series and so it all began.
0:52:42 > 0:52:45In my case it was fuelled by having children and wanting to
0:52:45 > 0:52:49recreate that safety and security of the world in the books for
0:52:49 > 0:52:52their childhoods and I felt that, by having lots of Ladybird books,
0:52:52 > 0:52:55it gave me a very good reference point to try and be like
0:52:55 > 0:52:56a mum in a Ladybird book.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59In fact, my children used to resent it and come home from school,
0:52:59 > 0:53:02if I was making scones, they'd go, "Oh, you're being Ladybird again!"
0:53:02 > 0:53:05cos they just wanted to watch telly or get on the computer.
0:53:05 > 0:53:07They didn't want to do baking and that kind of thing,
0:53:07 > 0:53:11so that is what impelled my own collecting and I think it's
0:53:11 > 0:53:13interesting why different people collect different things,
0:53:13 > 0:53:16what they want, what they're trying to find.
0:53:16 > 0:53:20What I particularly love about collecting older Ladybird books
0:53:20 > 0:53:23is seeing the way that they've been used.
0:53:23 > 0:53:25Seeing the fact that they've been given as
0:53:25 > 0:53:27a school prize for something or, you know,
0:53:27 > 0:53:31given to somebody from Auntie whoever with the date
0:53:31 > 0:53:33as a birthday present.
0:53:33 > 0:53:36It really gives them a history and shows how much they were loved.
0:53:37 > 0:53:41Many collectors are interested in rarity value, the books that
0:53:41 > 0:53:45did not sell well so were not printed in any great numbers.
0:53:45 > 0:53:49These can now fetch upwards of £2,000 each.
0:53:49 > 0:53:53But, for another kind of Ladybird fan, the value is not about money.
0:53:53 > 0:53:56The illustrations, once so faithfully done,
0:53:56 > 0:54:00have become precious pieces of social history.
0:54:00 > 0:54:04Tunnicliffe's pictures here which are of the countryside
0:54:04 > 0:54:06are full of birds.
0:54:06 > 0:54:10There's a picture I'm looking at now of a pond in winter,
0:54:10 > 0:54:15which is meant to show bulrushes and reeds and elm trees.
0:54:15 > 0:54:17Where are they now?
0:54:17 > 0:54:21And a flock of about 30 coot floating around on this pond.
0:54:21 > 0:54:25You'd have to go a long way to find as many as 30 coot, so this is
0:54:25 > 0:54:30a picture of a world in important respects, in terms of the numbers
0:54:30 > 0:54:34of birds in it and of the trees we see in it, can not be seen any more.
0:54:34 > 0:54:37Look at this. The partridge.
0:54:37 > 0:54:42Now, when this book was first written and printed and sold
0:54:42 > 0:54:45and went into the hands of budding naturalists,
0:54:45 > 0:54:47this bird was very common all over the UK.
0:54:47 > 0:54:50Sadly, it's very, very uncommon now.
0:54:53 > 0:54:57A lot of the jobs that are shown, like the pottery makers are gone.
0:54:57 > 0:55:00They depict an obsolete sector of the working world.
0:55:00 > 0:55:04There's one, In A Big Store, and it's a sort of old-fashioned big
0:55:04 > 0:55:08department store that's shown and it has an entire sewing department.
0:55:08 > 0:55:11It has a picture of lots of women on sewing machines saying,
0:55:11 > 0:55:13"When people buy things in a big store,
0:55:13 > 0:55:16"they sometimes want to have things altered because they don't fit,
0:55:16 > 0:55:19"so the items are sent up to the sewing room to be changed for
0:55:19 > 0:55:20"each individual customer."
0:55:20 > 0:55:22Of course, that's completely...
0:55:22 > 0:55:25I don't think any child now would have a clue that that had
0:55:25 > 0:55:29ever been a possibility, so they're interesting from that kind of
0:55:29 > 0:55:31social history perspective too now.
0:55:37 > 0:55:40The Ladybird books are very much of a kind of time.
0:55:40 > 0:55:43Modern agriculture has developed completely out of scale with
0:55:43 > 0:55:45the traditional countryside,
0:55:45 > 0:55:48so this was a kind of precious moment perhaps, a moment of balance,
0:55:48 > 0:55:53when mechanisation and the traditional countryside did seem
0:55:53 > 0:55:56compatible and that's, in many ways, I think much less clear-cut,
0:55:56 > 0:55:58much less certain now.
0:56:02 > 0:56:06Everyone who had Ladybirds as a child tells the same story.
0:56:06 > 0:56:08They read their favourite book so often,
0:56:08 > 0:56:11they became part of their DNA.
0:56:11 > 0:56:13When I look in this book now,
0:56:13 > 0:56:16which I recently retrieved from my father's attic, it says,
0:56:16 > 0:56:19"To Christopher, love your Gran and Grandad."
0:56:20 > 0:56:26I can recall implicitly ALL of the drawings and if you were to
0:56:26 > 0:56:29sit me down with a biro and say, "Go on, then,
0:56:29 > 0:56:33"outline where the animals are and vaguely what they were doing,"
0:56:33 > 0:56:37I think I'd probably score about 70%.
0:56:37 > 0:56:41It's very hard to recreate what it feels like to be a child, but
0:56:41 > 0:56:46if anything can, it's opening up a Ladybird book that I knew well as
0:56:46 > 0:56:50a child and it bypasses everything that comes between it.
0:56:50 > 0:56:56Suddenly, I don't feel, I just sense the feelings I felt when,
0:56:56 > 0:56:59as a six-year-old, I stared at that Ladybird book picture.
0:57:03 > 0:57:07I can't imagine what the child would be like to whom these didn't
0:57:07 > 0:57:09instantly appeal,
0:57:09 > 0:57:14who didn't manage to find a favourite somewhere along the way.
0:57:14 > 0:57:18And when you meet something like that in your childhood,
0:57:18 > 0:57:23they become part of some of your most formative experiences.
0:57:27 > 0:57:33What we take in as children, by and large, almost without exception,
0:57:33 > 0:57:38is what we remember best because, like creatures, we are imprinted by
0:57:38 > 0:57:42these things at a more fundamental level than is simply possible
0:57:42 > 0:57:44in our later lives.
0:57:44 > 0:57:45So, whether we like it or not,
0:57:45 > 0:57:47and actually in this case we like it a lot,
0:57:47 > 0:57:51there is a bedrock which has, in our minds, in our hearts,
0:57:51 > 0:57:54which has footprints on it
0:57:54 > 0:57:57and these footprints are the footprints of Ladybirds.