The same small Ladybird books, but mighty subjects

By F.R.

LADYBIRD BOOKS are something of a British institution. The slim volumes—11.5cm x 18cm and 56 pages—were designed so that they could be printed from a single sheet of paper known as a “quad crown”; their format has remained unchanged since they were first published in 1867. The best-known books, published in the 1960s and 1970s, were simple stories that harked back to a more innocent time. The adventures of Peter and Jane, their Mum (a housewife) and Dad (a breadwinner) were a reading aid for generations of children. The Learnabout books, a series of informational titles, followed.

What is surprising is that it took nearly 150 years for Ladybird to target an adult audience. In October 2015 they issued eight satirical books with titles such as “The Ladybird Book of...the Ex”, “...The Hangover” and “...Dating”. Those volumes were a huge success, shifting millions of copies, topping bestseller lists and spawning new titles as well as parodies. With the Ladybird Expert Series, launched in 2017, the publisher is hoping that didactic material will yield similar results.

Angela Hobbs, a professor at Sheffield University, has written “The Ladybird Book of Plato’s ‘Republic’”, the first philosophy title in the series, published on February 7th. Unsurprisingly, condensing what is essentially ten books into one small publication takes work. “I wanted to try and tick so many boxes,” Ms Hobbs says. “It had to be clear, it had to be accessible to someone who was utterly new to Greek thought, it had to be engaging, appealing and thought-provoking.” Distilling the thinking was a challenge, even for someone who has taught the subject for more than 30 years. “So much was left out it was painful,” Ms Hobbs says. “It wasn’t just cutting flesh, but slicing bone.”

She begins by setting “Republic”—and its reflections on just societies and just men—in context. Plato was born in Athens during the Peloponnesian War, a disastrous conflict with Sparta. He travelled through Greece and Egypt, and his friend and mentor Socrates was put to death. “He had a very, very dramatic life,” says Ms Hobbs. “He knows what he’s talking about when he’s talking about tyranny.”

Although Ms Hobbs did not have the space that Plato had to develop his method of Socratic “dialogue”, she asks the same questions. She starts with justice. What’s the advantage of having money? It makes you just, Cephalus says. So, does that mean that it is easier to be just if you’re rich? “A lot of my structure was following Plato and trusting him. He was such a brilliant teacher,” she says.

Plato’s “Republic” may be well over 2,000 years old, but the Ladybird version has a very modern feel. Ms Hobbs has highlighted the bits that are most pertinent to the 21st century, focusing on Plato’s analysis of democracy, how it is vulnerable to attacks both from without and within, on the role of women, the danger of alternative facts, of fake news and of sophistry. “Plato started life as a poet, and then gave up poetry because he thought it was wicked. He spent the rest of his life writing and reflecting,” she says. “What you get from his ‘Republic’ is that he wants philosophy to make us better people, so he knows he has to appeal to our emotions.”

There were pleasurable elements of the process, as Ms Hobbs discovered new aspects and resonances of the text. It became clearer how influential it was—from Iris Murdoch to Sir Isaiah Berlin, Sir Thomas More to Karl Marx. It was also a joy to work with an artist on the illustrations, she says. The pictures in Ladybird books have always been as important as the words (and were used to great effect in the humorous volumes). When the need to cut out yet more metaphysics and epistemology grew unappealing, Ms Hobbs found refuge in researching hairstyles, armour and saddles, and whether purple and scarlet existed in the 5th century BC.

“We think of these books as a curiosity gateway drug,” says Ariel Pakier, the series’ editor. “A way for someone to fall in love with the subject and absolutely need to know more. The Ladybird format—with its easy accessibility and illustrative text—should persuade people that complex subjects need not be as intimidating as they first appear.” Or, as Ms Hobbs writes on the first page, quoting her subject: “Philosophy begins in wonder.”