Here’s one from my childhood days, I found this copy in a local supermarket and was immediately taken back to wonderful memories of discovery as a young boy. The Hamlyn Children’s History of the World was first published in 1972 and was an invaluable resource for children and parents.

Written by Plantagenet Somerset Fry, a renowned British author of nonfiction for both children and adults and richly illustrated throughout by sadly, uncredited artists, it is a remarkably thorough account of world history from the very beginning of man up to Richard Nixon and the first moon landing.

Hamlyn Books was founded in 1950 by Paul Hamlyn (1926-2001)who wanted to produce affordable quality books to aid education. Most of the books published related to history, nature, encyclopaedias and the classics. The colour illustrations within the books were unusual for the time, and expensive to produce, so Hamlyn had the books published in Czechoslovakia to keep the same price low. Hamlyn also took to selling his books outside of the usual bookshops and displayed them at supermarkets and hardware stores.

Whilst this is aimed at children it is a more than satisfactory read for an adult, the level of grammar used would have been aimed at older, exam ready pupils and parents and it very much still holds up well today.

Seventy chapters and twenty two major civilisations covered over some four hundred and forty pages, I devoured these pages as a boy, what I lacked from state school education I found in books like this, the writing style and artwork drew me in in such a way no teacher ever did and I, like many others, I suspect owe much to Paul Hamlyn.