This edition is illustrated by Eric Kincaid and published by Brimax Books as a WHSmith exclusive. It’s heavily illustrated – a mix of text and illustration and full-page and spreads.
Picked up in a charity shop sale for 30p. I also got Peter Pan – also illustrated by Eric Kincaid (I’ll post that later).
Alice has brown hair in this edition and looks more like Alice Liddell than the blonde Disney Alice.
So who remembers the Little Grey Rabbit series? They were written by Alison Uttley and illustrated by Margaret Tempest and are about a little grey rabbit (of course) and a cast of assorted animals including Wise Owl, Moldy Warp (a mole) and Fuzzypeg (a young hedgehog).
I haven’t got any of the books, although I know we had some as children and got them out of the library, but this week I found a Pepys game (strap line: Better than a picture book Grey Rabbit’s own game – for you) for 99p. The aim of the game is to collect counters and whoever ends with the most is the winner. Now I shall have to find someone to play it with!
By Georgina Howell – First Published in 1975 by Allen Lane, this edition published 1978 by Penguin Books.
I found this rather battered copy at the weekend for £5. Close to 350 pages, large-format paperback it covers the period from 1916 to 1975. It’s mostly in black and white with a couple of four-page colour sections.
It is set out in chronological order (except for the colour pages) and each year has at least two pages. There are also long intros to each decade.
1917
1927
1942
1953
1966
1971
I picked this up yesterday for £2. Published by IPC Magazines in 1969. The price is still in at 10’6. June and School Friend were girls’ comics.
Joan of Arc is the main story – told in comic-strip form and taking up 24 pages spread through the book.
There are loads of inspiring stories of female derring do, self sacrifice and adventure. Including Edith Cavell, Queen Zenobia, Anna Leonowens (she of The King and I), Grace Bussell (Australian shipwreck rescuer), Gertrude Bell, Flora MacDonald and many others.
Here’s Violette Szabo – another long comic strip.
Gladys Aylward. This is the story the film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, starring Ingrid Bergman is based on.
This is Grace Darling.
Suffragettes.
And someone I hadn’t heard of – Louise Sutherland – who cycled around the world solo in the 1950s.
Listen, and you shall hear,
This riddle is not long:
There was a great White Deer,
Its antlers were so strong.
Seen by everyone,
It was caught by none.
I found this for 50p in a charity shop yesterday. It’s a 1989 printing of a 1973 book. It’s by Lyudmila Kopylova (English translation by Fainna Solasko). The illustration is by Nikolai Kochergin. It was published by Raduga Publishers, Moscow and printed in ‘the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics’. It’s a stapled pamphlet-style book. I don’t know much about Russian books – I don’t know if this was usual at the time.
Since I was small I have been interested in historical costume. I loved this book – I would pore over it for hours. I lost somewhere along the way, but I was really pleased to pick it up again recently – and it was just as I remembered it!
It was published in 1977 by Book Club Associates, by permission of Mills & Boon Limited.
It’s illustrated by the late Victor Ambrus – a prolific illustrator and author of both fiction and non fiction. In recent years he worked for Time Team, illustrating reconstructions of archaeological sites and historic events.
I can’t find much about Robert Selbie. The cover notes that he was involved in theatre costume design.
The book starts with Egyptians and ends with the 1960s. Each era is discussed over four pages. The first spread is mainly text with small pictures around the outside. The second spread has a full-page image of a man and a woman on the right. All of the images are labelled and there are relevant quotes too.
These are the Romans:
The Tudors (Very Wolf Hall):
And what was worn in the 1940s:
A few weeks ago I came across this in a charity shop.
It’s from a huge and diverse series called Lets Read and Find Out published by A&C Black. Titles ranged from Watch Honey Bees with Me to The Sun: Our Nearest Star.
I spent many years editing Scholastic Children’s Books’ Horrible Science series and I love a bit of illustrated non fiction.
Don Madden’s illustrations are an absolute joy – I gather he illustrated many, if not all, of the titles in this series. I particularly love the cat and dog onlookers/assistants. I hadn’t come across him before, but I shall certainly be looking for more.
Gravity on different planets
Through the Earth
Visiting the library
I found this in David’s Bookshop, Letchworth, for 25p. Result! This is a great book to show in this ‘100 years of Ladybird’ year.
This book is part of the Keywords Reading Scheme series (11c) and is all about books and reading. It covers fiction genres, non fiction (including facts, crafts, things to do, etc) writing your own books, visiting the library, using encyclopaedias, and finally how books are made. I don’t know if it was a mistake, but the book follows two children and their experiences of reading, but at the start they are introduced as Rita and Tim, but several pages in they turn into Peter and Jane (who were the usual Reading-Scheme characters) with no explanation.
Choosing books
Making books
Fiction genres
I’m not sure Ladybird would use this image as a cover now! But to put it into context, it is the illustration from a story in the book about how some South Sea Islanders catch octopuses. Presumably this image was chosen as being (in the publisher’s opinion) the most exciting in the book. At that time (I’m not sure about now) cover images were always taken from the book.)
Cover
Disney – pictures adapted by John Hench and al Dempster
The last of my festive posts about stories that have been turned into pantomimes. I remember going to see Peter Pan when I was a child. I think Anita Harris played Peter.
Peter Pan the character first appeared in The Little White Bird, a novel by JM Barrie published in 1902. Peter was a baby in this story, not the young boy of the later play.
From The Little White Bird
Illustrated by Jean Winslow
From The Little White Bird
Illustrated by Jean Winslow
The story we all think of as ‘Peter Pan’ was first a 1904 stage play called Peter Pan or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up. The story was then expanded into the 1911 novel Peter Pan and Wendy.
The following two illustrations are from my copy of The Story of Peter Pan retold by Daniel O’Connor from the Fairy Play by Sir JM Barrie published in 1917 by G Bell and Sons. The book was given to my nana in 1922 and she gave it to me when I was a baby. Sadly the book was slightly damaged in a water escape a few years ago.
Here’s Peter and Wendy
Illustrated by Alice B Woodward
The children meet the mermaids
Illustrated by Alice B Woodward
In 1953 the Disney version of Peter Pan was released. This really cemented the ‘look’ of Peter with his green tunic and tights, feathered cap and pixie features.
Disney – pictures adapted by John Hench and al Dempster
Disney – pictures adapted by John Hench and al Dempster
And finally here are a couple of the glorious illustrations by Anne Grahame Johnstone for her 1988 version of Peter Pan and Wendy.
Tinker Bell
Captain Hook
The third in my series of stories that inspire pantomimes. This week we have Cinderella.
Cinderella enslaved by her wicked stepmother…
Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone
You shall go to the ball…
From a colouring book version published by Treasure Hour Children’s Books – Unknown illustrator
Unknown illustrator from the Bridget Hadaway fairy tales book
Unknown illustrator
Mystery princess dances with the Prince all night…
Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone
By Gordon Laite
Disney illustrations adapted by Retta Scott Worcester
When the clock strikes midnight…
By Gordon Laite
If the shoe fits…
Disney illustrations adapted by Retta Scott Worcester
Three Wishes Books 