Helen Day
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Helen Day
@lbflyawayhome.bsky.social
12K followers 1.2K following 1.8K posts
Devoted to vintage Ladybird books and the other work of their artists. My exhibition The Wonderful World of the Ladybird Artists has been travelling since 2018. Twitter: @lbflyawayhome
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‘The Porter’ (1972)
This was the first piece of Ladybird artwork I ever bought. It drew me in.

Artist: John Berry
Porter on the railway platform pulls a trolley directly towards the viewer. Beside him is an open train door, and the person behind it part visible in the glass.
November 25, 2025 at 8:12 AM
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Other work by the Ladybird artists.
Mallards over the Marshes
Artist: Roland Green
A dramatic scene in moonlight as the birds take flight against the dark sky and flat landscape
November 24, 2025 at 9:06 PM
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On this day 24th November 1877 the novel Black Beauty was first published.
Anna Sewell said she wrote the novel "to induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses"
Artist: Harry Wingfield
Illustration showing a brown horse in a field with a small black foal. The foal has the distinctive white star on its forehead. (I’m sure those aren’t the right equestrian terms that they will have to do).
November 24, 2025 at 8:26 AM
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Other work of the Ladybird artists.
‘Evening party at the big house’
Artist: Ronald Lampitt (1958)
A large 1930s house brightly lit in early evening. A small group of smartly dressed people walk towards the house, with a sense of occasion
November 23, 2025 at 8:01 PM
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“Across this cloud-dappled sky skeins of wild geese are flying”
(What to Look for in Autumn, 1960)
Writer: EL Grant Watson
Artist: CF Tunnicliffe
November 23, 2025 at 8:47 AM
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Elf-made shoes
‘The Elves and the Shoemaker’, 1965
Artist: Robert Lumley
The shoemaker sits at his workbench surveying four brightly coloured pairs of soft leather boots
November 22, 2025 at 7:14 PM
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On this day 22nd November 1859 Cecil Sharp, founder of the English folk-song revival was born. (Here he’s pictured overhearing a gardener singing)
Artist: Martin Aitchison
The gardener is pictured with a seedling box, singing his heart out in the greenhouse while Sharp approaches from the garden path
November 22, 2025 at 8:05 AM
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It would have been artist Martin Aitchison’s birthday this week (b.1919 - d. 2016)
Here are some of his books for Ladybird
A photograph showing the front covers of a pile of about 60 different ladybird books, including a number from the Peter and Jane Reading scheme and some ‘well-loved tales’
November 21, 2025 at 7:34 PM
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Happy Friday

(Five Little Kittens, 1955)
Artist: A Macgregor
Five kittens,three on their hind legs, celebrate with toys, trumpets and flags
November 21, 2025 at 8:10 AM
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How do you do that with paint?
The mastery of artist Harry Wingfield.
‘Cherries’
Picture Book (1973)
A photo realistic illustration of a close-up of cherries in a white bowl, spilling out onto the table
November 20, 2025 at 8:28 PM
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Something cheerful for a chilly November day.
This wonderful 1950s Austin car brochure was printed by Wills & Hepworth, the firm behind the 'Ladybird' brand.
(Artist uncredited)
A bright red minibus filled with cheerful travellers drives up the hill of a coastal road on a sunny day. The headlamps and the radiator grill give something of the look of a smile to the van
November 20, 2025 at 8:11 AM
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Oompus the omnibus,
from Tootles the Taxi (1956)
Artist: John Kenney
A double-decker bus, yellow and blue, drives through the rain. As with all the transport in this book, it has a face and a personality
November 19, 2025 at 8:25 PM
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“The shepherd is looking up at a large skein of whooper swans which has come from colder climes. Like geese, they fly in V-formation”

(What to look for in Autumn, 1960)
Artist: CF Tunnicliffe
Writer: EL Grant Watson
The shepherd, standing among a flock of sheep, looks up at the dark and stormy sky
November 19, 2025 at 8:15 AM
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Ladybird things I really, really wanted, part 25.
A dress with a sticky-out skirt

Artist: Kenneth Inns
A girl stands in a greenhouse, tending a series of potted plants. She is dressed very primly in a blue dress with a stiffly sticky-out skirt.
November 18, 2025 at 7:26 PM
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Shell Guide, 1955:
“Between the mild days, November frosts strip the coloured leaves of the shrubs and climbers of the hedgerow so that all the fruits of early winter show more vigourously against a paler sky”
Artists: Edith & Rowland Hilder
Writer: Geoffrey Grigson
November 18, 2025 at 9:12 AM
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“The beech is one of our largest and most beautiful forest trees”
(Trees, 1963)
Artist: SR Badmin
View of a beech wood looking up at the lovely autumnal orange foliage . In the foreground, we see the fruit and a close-up of the leaves
November 17, 2025 at 7:34 PM
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Ladybird wisdom, 1975

“With so much noise in the world, we have to listen carefully to the things that are worth hearing”

(‘Sounds’, Artist: BH Robinson)
A boy listens intently to an album on a record player while in outline beside him we see an aeroplane, lorry and motorbike
November 17, 2025 at 8:13 AM
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The modern world in old Ladybird.

Hovercraft on the Thames, 1972
Artist: Frank Humphris
Tower Bridge is raised as the hovercraft passes beneath, watched from the bank by curious passers by
November 16, 2025 at 7:40 PM
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“On a willow twig a kingfisher perches. It watches the eels with interest, but these are well-grown and too big for him to catch”

‘What to Look for in Autumn’
Artist: CF Tunnicliffe Writer:
EL Grant Watson
A tiny kingfisher gleams out from dense overarching willows bordering a narrow river
November 16, 2025 at 8:17 AM
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Other work by the Ladybird artists.
Monsal Dale in Autumn
Cover picture, Readers Digest, 1983
Artist: SR Badmin
A scene full of intense autumnal colour, looking towards distant hills and crags with foreground of river and a farmstead
November 15, 2025 at 8:06 PM
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Jobs for pocket money

(Helping at Home, 1961)
Artist: Harry Wingfield
A boy and a girl ‘help’ their dad to wash the car parked outside on the drive, while dad looks on and smokes his pipe looking pleased with himself
November 15, 2025 at 8:23 AM
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Just look at this joy of a photo.
Jane’s shop - a study for an illustration in one of the first books I remember: Peter and Jane 1b (1963)
Artist: Harry Wingfield
Original reference photograph showing Jane posing in front of a table covered with toys The completed artwork of Peter and Jane and Pat the dog, playing at ‘shops’
November 14, 2025 at 6:45 PM
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Happy Friday!

‘Gallant Old Engine’ (1962)
(Ladybird Artist John Kenney also illustrated for Rev. W. Awdry’s Railway Series)
Scene from Railway Series book of a red steam engine battling through rain and gale - with a very annoyed look on its face
November 14, 2025 at 8:10 AM
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Other work by the Ladybird artists
‘November on the Dorset Coast’
Whitbread calendar 1971
Artist: SR Badmin
Close-up of the flora to be found in autumn along a coastal hedgerow near white cliffs
November 13, 2025 at 8:11 PM
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Ladybird book in the Spotlight.
Underwater Exploration, 1967.
(Particularly haunting illustrations)
Artist: B Knight
Front cover of the book, featuring two divers and a ray
November 13, 2025 at 8:26 AM