Ladybird Adventures in History

[LadyGlencoraPalliser]

Did anyone else have these when they were children? DD2 and I have just been enjoying the pictures in Florence Nightingale - and we have Nelson as well, and Julius Caesar and Napoleon and Cleopatra. And Alfred the Great. They are so fab, and nostalgia-inducing.

[Bink]

Oh yes.
(Adore your name, by the way.)
There was a particular style of illustration, with quite soft wash colours - no hard edges (possibly this was budget printing so you just coped with your ink run-overs - budget probably also accounts for that marvellous heady ink smell, yummmmmm, put your head in a Ladybird and breathe) - I still remember Alfred's caricature of horror face to show he'd realised the cakes had burnt.

Better yet, though, are the fairy tales. Cinderella's third dress - the shimmering ice blue one - was my vision of transcendent beauty until about age, oh, 46 ...

[LadyGlencoraPalliser]

And the shoes in The Elves and the Shoemaker, Bink, do you remember those? I longed for shoes like that instead of Start Rite.
A guy called John Kenney did all the illustrations for the Adventures in History books - I don't know if he did the fairy tale ones too, but I love his style.