Shameless bout of nostalgia brought on by the box set of Ladybird cover postcards that arrived in the post the other day. Ohhhhh! Beaky the Greedy Duck! That was MINE - in a family of five children, books were read by us all but we had a strong proprietorial sense of which ones belonged to us. One Christmas my brother and I received each other’s books - he had Puppies and Kittens and I got Tootles the Taxi. By the time my mother realised the mistake it was too late - they had been unwrapped and possessed. But the anxiety over this piece of literary gender bending was palpable - I was watched carefully for signs of growing up in to Andrea Dworkin. Anyway, whoever chose the Ladybird selection clearly had a different childhood experience - it is heavily slanted towards the “educational” ones. Where’s Tiptoes the Mischievous Kitten? The Discontented Pony? The Conceited Lamb? (they were mine too). And Cocky the Noisy Rooster (my brother’s - clearly to make up for the girly kittens)? Pity the poor child who found ‘The Public Services - Gas’ or ‘The Postman and the Postal Service’ in their Christmas stocking… But the box of one hundred cards would make a great present for anyone who grew up in the Fifties and Sixties or who is interested in design. They are fabulously retro.