It’s been a while since I’ve been to the Netherlands. But I certainly don’t remember much of it looking as sunny and polite as the Ladybird book, ‘Come to Holland‘ would have you think it is.

Never mind. I think we can excuse it… It is after-all a Ladybird book (quite an uncommon one too) and vintage Ladybird books aren’t there to function as a reliable guide to modern places and things. They’re informative, but to me they represent the past and they illustrate it so imaginatively and beautifully that I wouldn’t want them to be anything else.

This one is a cracker too. Plenty of stereotypical reference to cheeses, canals, tulip fields and women wearing funny hats. Apart from the usual great illustrations, this particular vintage Ladybird seems to have a unique selling point in that it functioned as a kind of pseudo travel-guide. In my mind ‘Come to Holland’ is up there with the greats… Weather and Underwater Exploration.