How to Date Ladybird Books

Learning how to date Ladybird books starts with one warning: the date on the title page is almost always the year the title first appeared, not the year your copy was printed. Ladybird kept popular titles in print for decades, so the real clues are physical. The jacket, boards, logo, price, tally number and back list each belong to a period, and together they will usually date a copy to within a few years.

Wills & Hepworth and the Ladybird format

Ladybird books were made by Wills & Hepworth, a printing firm in Loughborough that took that name when William Hepworth joined Henry Wills's business in 1904. The firm used the Ladybird name on children's books from around the First World War.

The format collectors know began in 1940 with Bunnikin's Picnic Party, the first book in Series 401. Wartime paper was scarce, so the books were small hardbacks, about 18cm by 11.5cm, laid out so that each one came from a single large printed sheet with no waste. They sold for two shillings and sixpence, a price that held for almost thirty years.

In 1971 the firm began trading as Ladybird Books, and in 1972 it joined the Pearson group. The Wills & Hepworth name on a title page therefore points to a book printed before the early 1970s.

Loughborough's Connection to Ladybird BooksCulture Leicestershire · plays from YouTube

Series numbers

Ladybird grouped its books into numbered series, each with a theme, and collectors usually set out to complete a series rather than chase single titles. Some well-known ones:

Series	Theme	Dates of the original run
401	The first titles in the classic format, starting with Bunnikin's Picnic Party	From 1940
497	Animal Tales by Noel Barr	1949 to 1955
522	Bible Stories	From 1952
536	Nature	From the 1950s
561	Adventures from History	From the 1950s
563	Learning to Read	From 1956
606D	Well-Loved Tales retold by Vera Southgate	1964 to 1974

The series number is not always printed on the early books, so collectors place them by publication order and the title lists Ladybird printed. Where our numbering rests on a single source, the edition page says so.

Dust jacket or boards

The single most useful dating clue is what covers the boards.

• Dust jacket (to 1965). Books before 1965 were issued in paper dust jackets over the boards, usually with the 2'6 price on the inside front flap. A pre-1965 title without its jacket has lost much of its value.
• Matt pictorial boards (from 1965). In 1965 Ladybird dropped jackets and printed the cover straight onto matt boards. A title first published after 1965 never had a jacket.
• Glossy laminated boards (from 1983). Shiny covers arrived in 1983, and many collectors stop there.

So a matt-boarded copy of a 1950s title is a reprint from 1965 or later, however early the title-page date.

Jackets can also be moved from one copy to another. If a jacket looks brighter or more worn than the book it covers, or its back list does not match the book's own, treat it as a separate item and date the book from its own clues. Our guide to dust jackets covers what to look for.

The logo and the imprint

The ladybird itself changed. Early books show it flying with open wings; around 1961 it was redrawn with its wings closed, seen from above. An open-winged logo on the jacket or title page points to 1961 or earlier, and a closed-winged one to 1961 or later. Further redesigns followed in 1965 and the early 1970s, when a new logo appeared on the boards.

Check the imprint too. Wills & Hepworth on the title page means an earlier book; Ladybird Books as the publisher means 1971 or later.

Price, tally number and back list

These three clues on the back of the book narrow the date further.

The price. A 2'6 price belongs to the pre-decimal years. A pre-decimal price printed on matt boards suggests a copy from 1965 to 1970, and a decimal price in new pence means 1971 or later. Prices were sometimes blacked out and restamped when they rose, so treat the price as supporting evidence.

The tally number. From about 1963 to 1974 many Ladybirds carry a tally number on the rear flap of the jacket or, later, on the rear board. It roughly counts the titles Ladybird had published, so it rises over time, from around 100 in the mid-1960s to over 350 by 1974. Dealers and collectors publish tables that match tally numbers to years.

The back list. Many Ladybirds list the other titles in their series on the back. A first printing usually lists titles only up to itself; if later titles appear after yours, the copy is a reprint. This is the best quick test for an early printing.

A worked example

Suppose you have a copy of The Inquisitive Harvest Mouse, the first Animal Tales book, and the title page says 1949. Here is how to work out when it was really printed.

1. Covers. It has no jacket and the picture is printed on matt boards. That alone makes it a printing from 1965 or later, because a 1949 printing would have been issued in a jacket.
2. Logo. The ladybird has closed wings, which agrees with a 1960s or later date.
3. Price. The back shows 2'6, a pre-decimal price, so the copy is probably from 1965 to 1970.
4. Tally number. A tally on the rear board can pin the year down further when checked against a published table.
5. Imprint. Wills & Hepworth is still named, which fits a book printed before 1971.

The answer is a late-1960s reprint, a pleasant copy worth a few pounds, rather than a first printing from 1949. A true early copy of the same title would be in its jacket, with the 2'6 price on the flap and an open-winged logo.

What makes a Ladybird collectable

Most Ladybirds were printed in large numbers and sell for a few pounds. Nostalgia has pushed prices up for the right copies, and these are the ones collectors chase:

• Early titles in their dust jackets, especially from the 1940s and 1950s.
• Scarce books. The Impatient Horse, the only title in Series 538, ran to very few printings and is hard to find. The six Adventures of Wonk books from the 1940s are also prized.
• The 1964 Cinderella. It was the only Well-Loved Tale issued in a jacket, which makes a jacketed copy of our 1964 edition a key book for 606D collectors.
• Condition. Children read these books hard. A copy without crayon, inscriptions or a loose spine is worth far more than an average one.

For scale, Homes & Antiques reported in 2012 that a 1964 Cinderella with its jacket fetched about £200, that collectors expected to pay £250 or more for a first edition or rarity, and that an ordinary later Well-Loved Tale made £10 to £20. A 2023 MoneyMagpie guide put a rare jacketed Cinderella at about £250. Stories of a special Ministry of Defence printing of How It Works: The Computer persist, but no copy is known to have been seen.

Check your copy

Our Ladybird Books hub explains how the checklists work, and each series page lets members tick off the titles they own: start with Animal Tales, from The Inquisitive Harvest Mouse onwards, or Well-Loved Tales by Vera Southgate. You can also search our Ladybird editions. For grading terms see our condition grading guide and the glossary.