This will be slightly different to my normal style of review of erudite historical works. Instead, it's a review of the best Christmas present I received this year.
We've developed a tradition over the last few years. We decided Christmas was starting to get a bit out of control and over-expensive. So we all agreed that children would get nice presents, but adults wouldn't buy presents for each other. Most of them were things we either didn't need or would have bought for ourselves anyway.
But to make things fun, my wife and I agreed that we'd get a small bad taste present for each other.
The rules were that it had to be inexpensive, as amusing and bad taste as possible while still being safe to open in front of children and the mother-in-law (who is rather straight-laced).
This is the gift my wife bought me this year 😁
This was my bad taste present this year from my wife; The Ladybird Book of Red Tape.
There's a LOT of cultural context around this. Growing up in England in the 1960's and 70's, these small hardbacked books were a staple of every child's book collection.
There were hundreds of titles, covering all kinds of topics in ways that young children could understand. Written in a fairly simple style and beautifully illustrated, they had a set format of illustration on the right and the text on the left. The illustrations were colourful and attractive, and had a distinct style across the range.
The original Ladybird books covered a huge range of themes, from popular fairy tales and bible stories, through to an extensive range of historical titles (mostly covering famous English historical figures and events), titles about famous scientists, and all kinds of daily life. They all had a strong educational focus, and most of the titles started with "The Ladybird Book of....", "How It Works:...." or "The Story of...."
Not so much this one. It's one of a growing series which are a wonderful parody of the original series. They follow the same format of being a small hardbacked book of exactly 56 pages. The illustrations are all from the originals, but used completely out of context and with very alternative satirical text.
This title is "The Ladybird Book of Red Tape". It's an educational book covering some of the wonderful vagaries of modern life and bureaucracy. The authors clearly understand the frustrations of modern life, and have spotted some of the numerous idiocies around the way red tape works.
Below is an example of the kind of twisted humour the book contains;
It turns out that this series of Ladybird books are not just a parody, they actually are published by the same company, which I guess is how they got the rights to use the original format and images. Nowadays they are part of Penguin Books, and they still publish children's books although in more modern formats.
All in all, this is definitely the best Christmas prezzie I've received this year, maybe I'll have to collect the whole series.....
Published in 2016 by Ladybird Books. 56 pages with colour illustrations. ISBN 978-0-718-18439-1
