Ask a British adult to picture their first book and there is a fair chance they will describe a Ladybird: the small hardback, the squared-off shape, the flat colour illustration filling a page opposite a page of large clear type. The imprint grew out of Wills and Hepworth, printers in Loughborough, and that pocket format became one of the most recognisable objects in twentieth-century British childhood.
Its influence ran well beyond nostalgia. The Key Words Reading Scheme, known to millions as Peter and Jane, taught a generation to read by drip-feeding the commonest words in English until they became automatic. Alongside it ran the non-fiction: how a motor car works, kings and queens, the weather, all delivered with an unfussy confidence that assumed children could handle real information.
Now an imprint within Penguin Random House, Ladybird still publishes for the earliest years, and its audio editions carry the same brief: clear, calm and never patronising.
2 hours and 30 minutes
