Remembering Ladybirds Books from my School Days

I mentioned yesterday while reviewing the new series of ‘Gunpowder’ the first I knew about the plot was reading the Ladybirds book “James 1 and the Gunpowder Plot” in school back in the sixties. It sparked a memory which is not a surprise or unheard of with me. Which were my favourites, my top five. I must have read most of the books release during my time in infant school and stole a few what a boy naughty I was.

Funny that even before I did some research I remember most of the titles but these five are the ones that I loved and there is a theme to them. Great leaders of men, heroes of British history excluding Alexander the Great and Willian the Conqueror a Frenchman who after killing King Harold in battle became King of England.. At least at the age of 8 onwards we were learning basic history if you were to ask kids of today who these men were I doubt any would have an idea who they were.

Ladybirds books were not just about heroes the was books like the fairy tale Rapunzel and Cinderella. There were also books about the Police and the Post Office. However, I was a dreamer and loved the idea of adventure and war. Richard the Lion Heart for one the warrior King and later I found out although he was born in England where he spent his childhood; after becoming king and during his reign he spent maybe as little as six months, in England choosing to lived most of his adult life in the Duchy of Aquitaine when he was not warmongering.

That’s what the Ladybird books did! Waking up your mind putting a spark of interest so if you saw a film, TV show or read a book it would add to your knowledge. Also there were so many twist and turns in history, what you listen to, read and seeing was it fact or fiction. That the problem was history so many authors/writers have their finger in the pie when none of them was there at the Battle of Agincourt Henry V great victory. The French writers at the time would have glossed over the French defeat while the English writers would have big up the victory.

Maybe out of these five favourites it’s the Captain Scott story that is my number one it was well documented and although he failed in this quest to be first to reach the South Pole and died along with his comrades this story shows that British stiff upper lip and true grit of the British explorers. Ever since reading the Captain Scott Ladybird book I have had a fascination with the North and South Pole more the Southern and the expeditions to the Antarctic regions.