Ladybird By Design, De La Warr Pavilion, Marina, Bexhill, Saturday, January 24, to Sunday, May 10

FOR generations of children growing up in postwar Britain, Ladybird books provided not only an introduction to the world of reading, but reflected the world they had been born into.

Now 200 iconic gouache, watercolour and oil paintings drawn from thousands of images used to illustrate an 800-strong range of books feature in an exclusive exhibition.

The origin of Ladybird By Design the show came from a conversation between the De La Warr Pavilion curator Jane Won and Lawrence Zeegen, professor of illustration and dean of the school of design at London College Of Communication last September. Zeegen had spent the first six months of the year penning the titular book to mark the imprint’s centenary.

“I was very excited about doing the book, but I imagined it would have a niche audience,” says Zeegen. “The response I’ve had from people seeing the artwork was overwhelming.

“Most exhibitions take two, three or four years to come together, but after our conversation in September, Jane was able to retweak the De La Warr’s calendar. Unfortunately the book itself won’t be out until March!”

The Ladybird Books imprint began in 1914 under the auspices of publisher Wills And Hepworth.

“The first books were almost unrecognisable,” says Zeegen. “It wasn’t until paper rationing during the Second World War that Ladybird came out with their iconic format – they had worked out how to print a book using one large single sheet of paper, maximising the space and cutting out waste. They were the perfect format for tiny hands.”

Zeegen’s exhibition focuses on a golden age for Ladybird books under the watchful eye of editorial director Douglas Keen between 1945 and 1973.

“He saw an opportunity for Wills And Hepworth to expand the Ladybird name,” says Zeegen. “He had conversations with librarians, schoolteachers, parents and shopkeepers about the books they thought would be interesting to kids. The feedback was there should be more inspiring educational books – the ones out there were pretty dry with black and white illustrations.

“It was probably the first time publishers had taken children’s books seriously.”

The resulting Ladybird series covered everything from history and reading skills, to science and technology. Youngsters learned about potential careers, were retold classic fairy tales, and experienced a non-PC world where Mummy did the cooking, shopping and washing, Daddy spent his spare time gardening and washing the car, and black and Asian people were only pictured carrying out service industries.

Zeegen believes the books capture a moment in history, using the skills of the unsung heroes of contemporary British art – the highly trained commercial artists.

“There’s something unique about the attention to detail and the very middle class views of white Britain,” he says. “A sense of realism, place and narrative comes across through the illustrations.

“There was something for everyone in the Ladybird books, from five years old to 15.”

With 24 illustrations per edition, a contract to illustrate a Ladybird book would have been a good job for a commercial artist. Regular Ladybird illustrators included names like Dan Dare creator Frank Hampson, wildlife specialist CF Tunnicliffe, Harry Wingfield who drew Peter And Jane for the reading series, People At Work series illustrator John Berry, and Martin Aitchison.

“A lot were freelancers working for advertising agencies doing one-off projects,” says Zeegen, who as well as working as an illustrator previously taught illustration courses in Brighton for more than 12 years.

The finished images became the copyright of Ladybird – which is why Zeegen has been able to select from such a vast range of originals from the company’s archive at the University Of Reading. Although the books were fairly small, many of the finished illustrations are up to 100 per cent larger.

“The overarching aim was to find favourite images among the 200 that would jog a few memories,” he says. “It was also about introducing people to more surreal aspects of the collection and try to represent the breadth of titles across the series.”

There are glimpses into the history of the time, from the small personal computer for the businessman which fills a room, to the depictions of trades like pottery-making which don’t exist in the same way today.

“There’s a book on roadmakers, because there was a huge amount of road-building going on at that time,” says Zeegen.

“But all the digital world and financial world which grew up in the 1980s is not there. When they first wrote about exploring space man hadn’t even been into space, let alone walked on the moon!”

Open 10am to 5pm, free. Call 01424 229111.