Helen Day
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lbflyawayhome.bsky.social
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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Other work of the Ladybird artists.
The delicacy and detail here
‘Autumn Wedding’
Artist : SR Badmin
A finally detailed mixed media illustration of an old church completely surrounded by autumn trees. Right in the foreground, near the Lichgate, a wedding scene is taking place
November 11, 2025 at 8:08 AM
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The Ladybird look
The quilted anorak, 1973.
(Did we all have one?)
Artist: Martin Aitchison
Two children, Peter and Jane, show their tickets to walk onto a train platform. Jane‘s anorak is green and Peter’s is blue.
November 10, 2025 at 8:22 PM
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I once found this very touching inscription in a book:

“This book belongs to Gillian Love, aged 7
8
10
12
60”
The front cover of the ladybird book sleeping beauty
November 9, 2025 at 8:01 PM
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“Among the fallen beech leaves”

Artist: CF Tunnicliffe
(What to Look for in Autumn, 1960)
A red squirrel is pictured burying a nut at the foot of a beech tree while nearby we see a hen blackbird - and a jay flying overhead
November 9, 2025 at 8:06 AM
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The Ladybird look.
The skirted swimming costume (1976).
Artist: Martin Aitchison
Peter and Jane are playing on the beach, running over the sand and climbing over an upturned boat
November 8, 2025 at 7:32 PM
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"I'll make you one"
Ladybird Picture Dictionary
Artist Eric Winter (1967)
Father shows a home-made dolls house (it’s large and looks pretty professional) to his daughter
November 8, 2025 at 8:36 AM
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I bought these old RSPB magazines for their CF Tunnicliffe cover pictures. They look so good together (with that delicious typeface!)
12 different RSPB magazines called ‘bird notes’ laid out in a grid to show the bird illustrations on the front
November 7, 2025 at 7:50 PM
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Other work by the Ladybird artists
Red Squirrel
Artist: CF Tunnicliffe
A pair of squirrels pose with great drama high up on a branch of scots pine.
November 7, 2025 at 8:16 AM
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"When lamps are lighted in the town" (1968)
Artist: A Buchanan
An illustration of night time at a tiny harbour in a fishing village. The scene is in shades of grey and blue broken by the bright yellow light of a window
November 6, 2025 at 8:20 PM
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Other work by the Ladybird artists
‘November Farm Work’
Farm Crops in Britain - Puffin Picture Book, 1955
Artist: SR Badmin
November 6, 2025 at 8:17 AM
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“A tawny owl is looking down from its high vantage point at the great bonfire”
Artist: CF Tunnicliffe
Writer: EL Grant Watson
The viewpoint of this picture is the owl’s as it looks down from a great height at the brightly burning bonfire
November 5, 2025 at 8:25 PM
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Other work of the Ladybird artists

‘Bonfire Night’ (1951)
Artist: Ronald Lampitt
A view looking down on a group of families surrounding a lit bonfire. Almost all the illumination in the picture comes from the bonfire and the contrast is warm and striking
November 5, 2025 at 8:20 AM
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Other work by the Ladybird artists
‘Autumn scene’
Artist: Ronald Lampitt
Seen from the cover of a John Bull magazine looking down on an idealised village in autumn with a bonfire prepared and children playing football on the green
November 4, 2025 at 7:28 PM
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Toffee apples
(1965)
Artist: Martin Aitchison
Peter Jean and friends are in the kitchen making toffee apples. Peter is testing the stretchiness of the toffee mixture
November 4, 2025 at 8:36 AM
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The day of the week that your comic came.

Artist: Harry Wingfield (1964)
The Ladybird character Jane is pictured totally immersed in a comic. It isn’t really possible to work out what comic it is. Or is it?
November 3, 2025 at 8:09 PM
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The Ladybird Land car factory (as captured in ‘Look and Learn’ magazine, 1964)
A heightened vintage photograph which has the quality of a hyperreal illustration of a busy production line in a car factory
November 3, 2025 at 8:47 AM
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“In late October tall bracken fronds are turning from russet to golden yellow, and the colours blend with fungi, the pheasants and the spindle-tree berries.”
Artist: CF Tunnicliffe
Writer: EL Grant Watson
(What to Look for in Autumn, 1960)
An autumn scene with two pheasants, a tree stump and fungi
November 2, 2025 at 7:58 AM
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The modern world in old Ladybird books. The diesel.

“It is sad to think that the last steam locomotive to be built in Britain left the workshops in March, 1960”
Artist: Robert Ayton (1961)
On a bright snowy day, a diesel locomotive rushes through the countryside. In the foreground, a fox with its prey dashes away from the tracks.
November 1, 2025 at 6:45 PM
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Happy 1st of November.
Here’s a biscuit tin, designed in 1958 by CF Tunnicliffe
Red squirrel perches in classic squirrel fashion on an old, moss covered log surrounded by autumn leaves
November 1, 2025 at 8:33 AM
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The day to show some love to these beautiful bats
#Halloween
Artist: John Leigh-Pemberton
Sea and Air Mammals, 1972
Beautifully illustrated portraits of four different types of bat, pictured in flight head on
October 31, 2025 at 8:23 AM
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Ladybird book in the spotlight.
‘The Princess and the Pea’ 1967

Artist: Eric Winter
The Princess lies uncomfortably atop a huge pile of colourful mattresses as the Queen observes her reaction
October 30, 2025 at 8:02 PM
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Toys and Ladybirds
From: ‘Shopping with Mother’ (1958)
Artist: Harry Wingfield
Two children, smartly dressed for a shopping trip, are looking avidly in the window of a toy shop. There are also ladybird books on sale in the toy shop and one of these is the book that this image comes from…
October 30, 2025 at 8:01 AM
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On #NationalCatDay
‘Smoke and Fluff ’

Artist: Angusine Macgregor
The front cover of the book, showing the two kittens peeping guiltily from behind a cupboard door, in their quest for jam tarts
October 29, 2025 at 8:22 AM
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Other work by the Ladybird artists
‘Threshing’ (1949)
Artist: CF Tunnicliffe
On a misty autumn day, a group of farm workers are busy with a threshing machine powered by a traction engine
October 28, 2025 at 7:26 PM
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Ladybird wisdom, part 47.

Artist: Frank Humphris
(A First ‘Do You Know’ Book, 1971)
A huge blue whale emerges suddenly from the sea, dwarfing and overwhelming the small boat containing six people
October 28, 2025 at 8:34 AM