Collecting Ladybird Books

Ladybird books are a delight to own and read. The early books capture so much of a period in Britain in which they were produced. Their simple approach to explaining each subject combined with full page illustrations by a wide range of artists make them a fascinating subject to collect.

In particular Ladybird books have captured a period of British social history. Read more . . .

The publishers

Wills & Hepworth began publishing Ladybird books in 1914. Their range of children’s books evolved into Ladybird books the 1940s.

Ladybird books today

Ladybird Books continue to evolve. Today a new range of spoof subjects are proving to be popular. However, it is still fun to collect and preserve the older editions.

Ladybird books are much loved in the UK. Shown here is one of the commemorative stamps issued by the Royal Mail in 2017.

Dating Ladybird books

It is not easy to determine whether a Ladybird book is a first-edition. Dating these books can be difficult. We can recommend this website as a very helpful way of dating Ladybird books: The Wee Web.

There is a huge range of vintage Ladybird books, including ‘Well Loved Tales’, ‘How it Works’ and ‘The Key Words Reading Scheme’. Click here to see this page showing vintage Ladybird books.

Dust-wrappers

Before 1965 Ladybird books were published with dust-wrappers. After 1965 the books were produced with a matt-finish pictorial board. In the 1980s the books began to have gloss-finish boards.