Well Loved Tales was a series of illustrated re-tellings of fairy tales and other traditional stories published by Ladybird between 1964 and the early 1990s. The books were labelled as "easy reading" and were graded depending on such aspects as their length, complexity and vocabulary. Most of the stories in the series were based on stories by Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault, alongside a number of traditional English folk tales such as Jack and the Beanstalk and The Three Little Pigs. The first title in the series was Cinderella, and over the next decade, twenty seven titles were published, all written by Vera Southgate. In 1979, with the publication of The Ugly Duckling, Pinocchio and Tom Thumb in the series, the look and format of the books changed.[1] The books now universally featured a green spine and back cover, as well as a standard logo. The series also broke with the Ladybird tradition of having a left page of just text and a right page of just picture, and the illustrations became more stylised than the previous editions. Older titles were gradually re-illustrated over the years. Under this new look, even more titles retold by a variety of different editors and authors came to be added over the course of the 1980s, with popular stories including Hansel and Gretel, The Little Mermaid and The Wizard of Oz.[2]
The series gradually went out of print in the early 1990s, yet the current "Ladybird Tales" series has reused some of the original "Well Loved Tales" texts.
Titles in the series were translated into many different languages including Arabic, German and French. Eventually sales in the series sold upwards of 80 million copies worldwide.[1] The older books have been known to fetch quite high prices on the secondhand market; for example, first editions of "Cinderella" with a dust jacket have been known to go for as much as £150.
Perhaps due to the nostalgia for some of the earlier titles in the series, later editions with more stylised illustrations are often held by some with lesser regard. Equally, the original editions of the 1960s and 1970s have been criticised for their illustrations for being lifeless and not leaving much to the imagination. Equally, some have raised concerns over the drastic abridging of longer stories such as Pinocchio and the right to retelling distinctly literary fairy tales with a clear author such as Hans Christian Andersen.[3]
| VHS title | Release date | Presenter(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Well Loved Tales - Chicken Licken, Town Mouse and Country Mouse and The Little Red Hen | 14 November 1988 | Christopher Biggins | |
| Well Loved Tales - Cinderella and The Tinder Box (LPV 8269) | 14 November 1988 | Judi Dench | |
| Well Loved Tales - Dick Whittington and his Cat and The Goose Girl (LPV 8268) | 14 November 1988 | Paula Wilcox | |
| Well Loved Tales - Little Red Riding Hood and The Golden Goose | 14 November 1988 | Gemma Craven | |
| Well Loved Tales - Rapunzel and Beauty and the Beast | 14 November 1988 | Una Stubbs | |
| Well Loved Tales - Rumpelstiltskin and The Emperor's New Clothes (LPV 8273) | 14 November 1988 | Shirley Cheriton and Sam Howard | |
| Well Loved Tales - The Bold Little Tailor and Jack and the Beanstalk (LPV 8257) | 14 November 1988 | Ron Moody | |
| Well Loved Tales - The Emperor and the Nightingale and The Firebird | 14 November 1988 | Shirley Cheriton and Sam Howard | |
| Well Loved Tales - The Little Mermaid and Tom Thumb (LPV 8260) | 14 November 1988 | Jan Francis | |
| Well Loved Tales - The Pied Piper of Hamelin and The Sorcerer's Apprentice (LPV 8259) | 14 November 1988 | Ron Moody | |
| Well Loved Tales - The Princess and the Pea and The Princess and the Frog (LPV 8261) | 14 November 1988 | Tim Brooke-Taylor | |
| Well Loved Tales - The Snow Queen and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | 14 November 1988 | Una Stubbs | |
| Well Loved Tales - The Three Little Pigs and The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids | 14 November 1988 | Jonathon Morris | |
| Well Loved Tales - The Wizard of Oz and the Three Billy Goats Gruff (LPV 8266) | 14 November 1988 | Paul Jones |