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Ladybird books of the Bible

by
12 July 2024

Peter Crumpler revisits a publishing phenomenon

Peter Crumpler

Some of the Christian Ladybird book covers

Some of the Christian Ladybird book covers

TALK of a forerunner in Christian circles, and people tend to think of John the Baptist, not Bunnikins Picnic Party.

Yet it was this book, in 1940, that began a remarkable series that went on to teach the Christian faith to the post-war generation of British children.

Bunnikins was the first of the Ladybird books published by Wills & Hepworth, their size and pagination (56 pages) dictated by what could be produced most economically out of a single quad crown sheet of paper.

Because of their low cost and high-quality illustrations (and despite the modest quality of the printing), the small books sold in their hundreds of thousands of copies in the UK and overseas. The series quickly expanded to include science, history, travel, nature, and biographies, making even complex topics accessible to children. A later series, featuring Peter and Jane, taught countless children to read.

Editions were published in more than 60 different languages, and they often became keepsakes. I still have a copy of my childhood favourite, Tootles the Taxi, which showed types of vehicles, with simple rhymes and beautiful illustrations.

And, from early on, Ladybird began producing religious titles, widely used in primary schools and churches. Many older readers maintain a deep affection for the books that first introduced them to Bible stories and allowed them to tell them to others. One told me: “I have been a Sunday-school teacher for more than 50 years, and these books make excellent visual aids for teaching Bible stories. I produce laminated posters with scripture and explanations on them, and children since the 1960s until this day love the lessons.”

Helen Day, the curator of her collection of books and memorabilia, currently on display in the Museum and Gallery, St Albans, says: “They were hugely influential in children’s lives — especially in the 1960s and ’70s, when Ladybird was well established as a publisher for children and the market was less competitive,” she says. “Right from the start, the combination of the small size, hard cover, abundant full-colour illustrations, consistent format, and high quality made them appealing both to children and adults.”

 

THE first title in the scripture series was The Child in the Temple, a retelling of the story of Samuel, written by Lucy Diamond and illustrated by Kenneth Inns. “Religious books were among the earlier titles to be published, beginning in 1952,” Ms Day says. “This is consistent with the early mission of the company to publish gently educative books for pre-school children. The religious books of the 1950s were, however, clearly aimed at a slightly older readership.

“The religious titles must have sold in vast numbers, judging by the number of existing copies. It’s extremely common to find a bookplate in the front of the religious books, explaining that the title in question had been a prize for school attendance or success.”

Mikal LudlowHelen Day, curator of “The Wonderful World of the Ladybird Artists” exhibition

Lorraine Johnson and Brian Alderson, authors of The Ladybird Story, a book exploring the series, explain why the Bible titles were so popular: “Here, for half a crown, was the first of what would become a 12-title series where stories of irreproachable provenance, garnished throughout with colourful illustrations, would attract buyers from all classes.

“Shop sales would be augmented by Sunday schools and primary schools, for whom the books could serve both for teaching and prize-giving — a double market that had not been shared by most of the books in the earlier story and nursery series, despite their popular appeal.”

Johnson and Alderson comment that Diamond “must have recommended herself as an old hand at scriptural reworkings; for she had been engineering such things since the 1920s, mostly for the children’s divisions of Collins and the Oxford University Press.

“Ladybird would have recognised her as meeting public expectations in Bible storytelling, and, although illustrator Kenneth Inns has no discernible track record in book illustration, he provided conventional pictures likely to support Diamond’s market appeal.”

Other authors of Ladybird religious titles include Hilda Rostron, whose children’s stories had been broadcast on BBC Radio’s Listen with Mother; Ralph Gower, author of the bestselling The New Manners and Customs of Bible Times (Moody, 2001); Sylvia Mandeville, who also produced easy-reading versions of the Bible stories; and Douglas Stewart Hare, who wrote religious works for other publishers.

Ms Day notes: “Before the 1960s, before Douglas Keen’s was the hand at the tiller as editorial director, the writers would probably have been commissioned because they were known in their field. After the 1960s, Keen tended to recruit anyone he thought had the skills to suit a particular commission, and he trusted his own judgement on this.”

 

ALTHOUGH loved by many, the Ladybird religious titles do have their critics. Johnson and Alderson write: “It could be said that Lucy Diamond and her illustrator for the series, Kenneth Inns, are hamstrung by having to fit their chosen stories into the 48 pages allowed for the story by the Ladybird format, which leads to measures that interrupt the flow of the story.”

Other criticism from Johnson and Alderson focuses on the bestselling Ladybird title The Little Lord Jesus, published in 1954. They write that the image of Mary “does not give a realistic suggestion of [childbirth] having taken place a few moments beforehand — with the mother just arrived after a hundred-mile journey on the back of a donkey — but rather a sentimental impression of the ‘serenity’ of motherhood.”

Church TimesDavid defeats Goliath, illustration by Kenneth Inns from The Shepherd Boy of Bethlehem

The “white European” appearance of the baby Jesus and Mary throughout the book is jarring to modern eyes, and the skin tones of other biblical characters across the titles are depicted in an inconsistent range of hues.

The Revd Mary Hawes, former Children and Youth Adviser for the Church of England, told me about her fond memories of Ladybird books: “They always gave an accurate portrayal of the biblical stories using appropriate and compelling language. I also seem to remember that they didn’t shy away from some of the more unsavoury narratives, and I’m also impressed with the additional context they add into the stories.

“However,” she said, “the illustrations — particularly the women — are very muddled. Jesus in the nativity story is very white European. Jesus as a baby is also very chubby white.”

Johnson and Alderson also refer to the “age-old conventions of the genre — pillared halls, well-scrubbed youths in spotless tunics, bearded gentlemen in dressing-gowns — blocking the imaginative energy demanded by the story”.

The partnership between Diamond and Inns was responsible for ten stories, taken from the Old and the New Testaments, the last being a version of Naaman and the Little Maid (1959). Two further stories, St Paul and Peter the Fisherman, were added in 1969, the author now Douglas Stewart Hare, and the illustrator a Ladybird stalwart, Eric Winter. Other titles followed.

In addition to the Bible-story books, Ladybird published prayer books, including the Ladybird Book of Prayers Through the Year, in 1964, with illustrations and prayers for each month. In the late 1970s, the Scripture Union formed a partnership with the Ladybird brand to produce a series of books in a long, narrow format, with titles covering key Bible events and characters.

As the exhibition in St Albans shows, the books were produced for a time when families were routinely depicted as mother, father, a son, and a daughter, with the father leaving home to go to work. Scripture lessons were taught in primary schools, and Sunday-school attendance was higher than it is today. To that extent, the Ladybird books tell a story of their times.

In recent years, adults have been buying more bizarre incarnations of Ladybird books, such as The Ladybird Book of the Zombie Apocalypse, all with a sardonic twist. But the old format, despite its shortcomings, has enduring charm, and the ability to bring Bible stories alive with imagination and flair.

 

“The Wonderful World of the Ladybird Artists” is at St Albans Museum and Gallery, Town Hall, St Peter’s Street, St Albans, until 8 September, admission free. stalbansmuseums.org.uk

The Revd Peter Crumpler is a self-supporting minister in St Albans diocese, and a former director of communications at Church House, Westminster.

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