Karin Seager Cockram

At a recent meeting of the Fredonia Shakespeare Club Karin Seager Cockram presented her paper on The Artistry of Lady Bird Books

Lady Bird books have been around for more than 150 years, first opening as a bookshop in 1867 in Loughborough, Leicestershire. 6 years later, owner Henry Wills began printing and publishing guidebooks and street directories as well as business cards and logs and journals. He was joined by William Hepworth in 1904 and the company became known as Wills & Hepworth. The “Ladybird” imprint (we call it a trademark) began in 1914 with the publication of their first children’s books.

The outbreak of World War II and the resulting paper shortage led to a significant decrease in the printing business, but The Wills & Hepworth company stayed in business by creating a process which allowed for an entire book to be produced from one large, carefully laid out sheet of paper. This iconic format has been maintained to this day. It is a book of 56 pages in full colour, printed from a single sheet of 40- by 30-inch paper, known as a quad crown. After the war, the new director of the company, Douglas Keen, spent time talking to librarians and teachers around the country to learn what they saw as the greatest need for books. They felt that there was a shortage of colourful non-fiction books available for children. So, he made that his focus for Wills and Hepworth’s future as Ladybird books for children.

Between 1940 and 1980, Ladybird published 63 different series, resulting in 663 different titles. The series range from Series 401 (rhyming stories) to Series 497 (animal tales) and 536 (nature series). There was a bible story series, adventures from history, learning to read, travel, series 633 (things to make and do, series 701 (great artists), series 708 (great scientists), and my favorite: Well Loved Tales (Series 606D). In 2015 Ladybird announced its first series of books for adults: parodies of the children’s books.

Cockram’s presentation focused on the 606D series illustrators, Eric Winter and Robert Lumley. Eric Winter was born in Edmonton. He was educated at Latimer Public School, which is where he first became interested in Art. He went on to study at Hornsby Art School where he began to experiment in fine art, pen and ink, and charcoal drawings. He painted in both oil and watercolour became his first love and he dreamed of making a living through commissions. In the early 1960s, Eric was introduced to Douglas Keen, then the director of Wills and Hepworth – and Ladybird books. He worked for Ladybird books, illustrating until his death in 1981. Robert Lumley was born in Southwark, London, in 1920, to a family of itinerant workers. Robert was the first member of the family to paint and draw professionally as, at the age of 14, he won a scholarship to study art at a technical school.

Shortly after the end of WWII, Robert Lumley took up an apprenticeship in Cookham, Berkshire, joining a team of British artists being trained to animate under David Hand, art director of Disney’s Bambi. Robert and his wife set up a business in Essex providing art services for posters, greeting cards, portraits, wall charts, animation, etc. He was hired to illustrate Well-loved Tales that were published between 1964 and1974. He died in 1976 in a car accident.

Cockram then shared her collection of 21 of the 27 books in the series, along with short anecdotes about each book.