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If number of titles is taken as a measure of success then this ranks as the most popular ladybird series. Possibly after the great success of the nature series for slightly older readers, Wills & Hepworth decided to do the same with history. In the years when education was swinging away from rote learning to project work and investigations these books must have been every childs dream who had to find out about a historical figure. To begin with the first 23 titles were all written by L.Du Garde Peach and illustrated by John Kenney but this changed as new writers and illustrators were brought in to add to the ever growing set.

The original books up to and including Richard the Lionheart came out with dust jackets over buff/grey covers. The very earliest copies again had slight variations in the fonts used which soon settled down. After 1965 they continued in the standard matt pictorial format until about 1976, then the entire series was changed to having the cover picture inside a blue border. Although a few titles were revised through the years the series remained pretty much intact till at least 1986.

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