Lawrence Zeegen

0:24how doing how we doing can you hear me no Distortion okay right as soon as I press this button it's going to give me 10 minutes and you're G to go like this if I get really close to it. And it doesn't look like I finished no okay I don't have any balloons I've got no props I've got no pictures of me writing or drawing I've done the intro so we can move back okay.

0:45I want to start with this image because I'm going to try and transport you back to a time I suppose many years before many of you were born but your parents I'm sure were around it's a story that was set at this point in 1964 that happens to be if you want to do the mass the year of my birth but it's an important moment in the history of this country actually learning to read so I I I want to introduce the heroes of this story and they're two characters brother and sister beautiful siblings Peter and Jane so they were first introduced to a waiting World in 1964 this is Peter and Jane they were the creation of ladybird books they were the creation of two main illustrators both living in different parts of the country try and imagine this is going to take some deep thinking from this generation try to imagine a world pre-digital it really existed so two illustrators Harry Wingfield Martin Hinson and different parts of the country using different models created a set of 36 books based around the adventures of Peter and Jane and these two Heroes were responsible for teaching generations to read Peter and Jane lived in a world that was very safe and very simple it was a world world where Mommy shopped on the High Street where children were definitely white and very middle class it was a world where Christianity was the only religion. And it was a world where kids were wholesome.

2:47And well behaved I'm going to pause for a moment because you can see this couple of kids singing hymns from books that they're on the cover of and what what's rather fantastic about Ladybird books is the kind of self- referencing so if you go back through the back catalog of over 800 books from the Golden Era of ladybird you'll see many times that ladybird feature inside ladybird books and I think that's kind of confusing for small kids but I think it's a great marketing Ploy so kids were wholesome. And well behaved a world as I once as I as I just mentioned that was once pre-digital so before that thing called the internet and rainy Sundays meant hobbies and crafts and I'm sure hands up if you have a sibling a brother or sister keep your hands up if you didn't argue okay I see one hand up.

3:46So the children in ladybird books it was an adelic existence they got on well with their siblings there was no fighting no arguing it was a world where science was an adventure and pause for a moment to tell you a very quick story these two on the left one of the key people behind Lady Bird books was a chat called Douglas Kean I don't have time to go into who he was but he was really The Man Behind moving ladybird ladybird was set up in 1915 and when he joined after the second world war he was instrumental in moving it more towards educational titles that's his daughter on the left hand side Jenny on the right hand side is Harry Wingfield son and the two of them never met until until January where an exhibition opening and I'll go into the exhibition at the end of the presentation brought these two together.

4:40So I have photographs of the two of them meeting for the first time.

4:43So I make that point because whilst they're having this idilic time having adventures with science enjoying knowledge the two of them never met they were comped together by illustrators in by an illustrator from a whole set of different references so where outdoor activities were engaging and physical and in a world where the people of Britain were res resolutely working class and proud and ladyb was never condescending it was a period during the 1960s when we were rebuilding Britain after the the second world war where little girls aspired to be nurses and little boys aspired to be Road makers or Pottery makers so this was a time in Britain's history where the these were occupations the 1960s the 1970s that's when Britain was laying tarmac and building motorways and it's hard to imagine a publishing company today an editorial team getting around the table and saying you know what nine-year-olds need they need a book about making motorways but this is what ladybird did you could choose to work on the railways you could make cars redundant Industries pretty much in this country where working in a hotel was interesting and rewarding okay and where nature was absolutely abundant and the British Countryside was a place to discover the natural world.

6:13So this was a world where my generation when we were under 10 years old we we didn't leave the country we went to the countryside no one went to Europe that was unheard of there was no in this wonderful British Countryside there was no environmental threat to Nature whatsoever it was peaceful it was idilic and where the stories that we read had morals there were goodies there were baddies and there were Tales of good forever triumphing over evil but it was also a place where our childhood was full of Adventure and knowledge and it was a place where we could turn to ladybird books to find out about the world around us where kids books were informative they were creative they were educational and where a generation could turn to these books for answers before as I said the dawn of the digital and the internet they were far simpler times and I've met many adults that have confessed to going back to their ladybird books as adults because they haven't still figured out how a television or a telephone or a computer works and across 24 pages 24 illustrations you get the sense of how these things work so Peter and Jane guided us they taught us about the world.

7:45And so I mentioned there were there were 36 books in total across three series of 12 books in each series and as I just mentioned there were 24 illustrations per book.

7:55So I did a quick calculations as as I was sat there I've not actually done it before. There are 864 images across the Peter and Jane books there's not a single argument there's nothing UNT happening whatsoever but here once again ladybird referencing ladybird within a ladybird illustration but Peter and Jane taught us that reading was the key to education and very very simply what ladybird did was recognize that commonly repeated words there were about 24 commonly repeated words and if you taught children to read using those commonly repeated words they would remember and pick up how to read what's really incredible ladybird are 100 years old this year they're still a successful publishing company company the first books were published in 1915 the Peter and Jane keywords reading scheme came to prominence in 1964 and to the present day the the estimate is that they've sold a 100 million Peter and Jane books worldwide across 70 different countries which is you know staggering it's hard to imagine I mean I don't know how many would we get 100 million ladybird books in this room no I don't think we would a huge amount and to commission those 864 images ladybird invested in 1964 the princely sum of £25,000 I mean a huge sum of money to commission the two illustrators there were a couple of other other illustrators involved in the first series but it it was they soon peeled away because they realized the real masters of creating Peter and Jane and and keeping them memorable fell to Harry Wingfield and Martin Henson but 25k 1964 equates in today's money to nearly half a million pound 450,000 hard to imagine anyone in here working children's publishing okay that little row there can you imagine a world where you'd spend half a million pounds commissioning illustration can the illustrators in here imagine a world where you get that call no okay.

10:12So and in old money they sold for two and six is there anyone in the room that remembers old money so two and six was half a crown and in new money does anyone in the remember past decimalization where we had half penny pieces same hands go up right maybe a few more so in real money they cost 12 and a half p and they stayed that price for 29 years I mean fascinating facts a book that sold for 29 years at 12 and a half P I can't I can't think of many other things that have stayed at fixed price for that long but ladybird soon realized that they weren't really heading as Z guys Peter brilliantly wholesome I mean I grew up through the 60s and 70s and me and my mat did not look like this this did not represent the world we lived in it might have represented the world we aspired to 10 years in after having spent £25,000 ladybird realized they were going to have to move with the times and so they updated Peter and Jane they needed to look less old-fashioned and more contemporary so Peter's hair grows over his ears and suddenly I'm there I'm nine years old and that looks like me and my mates he's got a kind of funky sweatshirt on he's got jeans on he's out of shorts for the first time I'm thinkable 10 years before Jane she's allowed for the first time to put on trousers start wearing plimp sols and they became real they became real to Our Generation small details they became a little more urban the bricks behind Jane 10 years before Unthinkable these were country loving kids trips to the shops became more realistic in in the in the 1960s a trip to the shops with Mommy looked like this by the 1970s it look like this and Mommy's like get out of the house here's the shopping list go and get the shopping done and the two of them become more adventurous I mean I love that those anax if you're around my age they were the they were you if you had that anara they were almost like little fashion manuals but the kids became Jane was allowed finally to be more adventurous instead of standing back and admiring Peter's Adventures she's allowed to kind of get involved in them so here in 1964 his Peter bravely rescuing a ball from the tree and here's Jane 10 years later well I'm going to climb up the first branch of the tree and help Peter so there's some activity that Jane's involved in and then for the first time black faces appear but only as do in shops that Jane's choosing so lots of changes taking place and there's some semblance through the 70s of a changing world that ladybird was starting to reflect upon what's interesting is ladybirds still publish a keywords reading scheme and they still use the 1974 illustrations so you can still go to the shops and buy these books I'm well over time I'm going to speed up. There are two ways to learn more about Ladybird I think a fascinating subject I would say that because I've spent six months of my life kind of dedicated to it the first is you can take a trip down to Beck Hill which is a place on the south coast that is a little like ladyb Bird's World where early closing on a Wednesday everything's shut five o'clock throughout the week and nothing happens on a Sunday but I would say this beautiful modernist piece of artwork artwork architecture whether you go for the ladybird exhibition there or whether you go to explore this place do go once again ladybird reference within ladybird illustrations I'll briefly whiz through this is an exhibition that that we've curated myself and Jane Juan the head of exhibitions at the Dela we've Cate curated an exhibition that brings together 220 original artworks I'm very fortunate that I trained in an analog world and made a move to a digital world I kind of cheesily refer to it as BC and AD before computer after digital so to go and see this wonderful artwork and see the talents of these hugely well brilliant illustrators is something to behold all hand painted 220 artworks from an archive held at Reading university if you're an illustrator the idea of not getting your artwork back is something to kind of get enraged about ladyb Bird's contracts with illustrators were were almost kind of fascist ill rators didn't get the work back hence there's an archive at Reading university of many thousands of artworks the other great thing about the exhibition is that as well as the artworks there are 800 ladybird books on display so you can go there and see people my age and older peering at them saying Oh I had that one or oh I had that one so I'm going to finish there that the second way of finding out more about ladybird books and this is a Shameless plug for the book I've just written was published last last last month is pick up this book at least have a look in the library and the bookshops Lady Bird by design it tracks the 400 years and there are many many many more stories about what has become a national treasure and was really important in educating generations of kids through the 50s 60s 70s and to today thank you very much for your time ♪