By the early 1980s, the availability of stereo tape decks coupled with the advent of Sony’s Walkman had paved the way for cassettes to become the most popular audio format in the United Kingdom. Consequently, a plethora of children’s story cassettes or ‘talking books’ (by virtue of the fact that most were accompanied by a read-along-book) found their way into homes, schools and libraries popularising narratives which ranged from children’s classical literature to the spin-off adventures of familiar television characters.
For those interested, a then-contemporary overview of this phenomenon can be found here:
http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/issue/47/childrens-books/articles/other-articles/talking-books
Responding to this demand, production companies such as Rainbow Communications, Tellastory, Tempo, Marshall Cavendish and Pickwick International all released successful audio cassette series which catered for young people from early childhood to late adolescence.
In terms of popularity, longevity, quality, nostalgia, and perhaps even acclaim, three such series have endured the test of time and memory, surviving as cultural cornerstones of this exciting era of children’s storytelling:
1. Ladybird/Pickwick’s Tell-A-Tale Series
2. Marshall Cavendish’s Story Teller
3. Fabbri’s Once Upon A Time
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Tell-A-Tale
By the late 1980’s Pickwick International had released an extensive range of children’s audio cassettes with popular series such as ‘Read with me’, ‘Stick-a-tale’, ‘Puffin Classics’, ‘Cook-along’, ‘Biba’, ‘The Disney Read Along Collection’, ‘Ditto Children’s Series’ and the ‘Tell-A-Tale Series’.
Arguably, the ‘Tell-A-Tale recordings emerged as Pickwick International’s most popular children’s series by the mid-1980s. Recorded and produced by Pickwick International and (initially) in association with The Moss Music Group New York, this selection of children’s audio cassettes accompanied a range of Ladybird Books from 1982-1992 such as ‘Well Loved Tales’, ‘Children’s Classics’, ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’, ‘Puddle Lane’, ‘Ladybird History Series’, ‘Ladybird Horror Series’, ‘Fables and Legends’, ‘He-Man and the Masters of the Universe’, ‘Transformers’, ‘She-Ra Princess of Power’, ‘The World of Beatrix Potter’, ‘Superman’, ‘Batman’, ‘Barbie’, ‘The Garden Gang’ and standalone texts such as nursery rhymes, songs and a range of other TV spin-offs.
Earlier recordings from the series are of exceptional quality and are perhaps remembered most fondly for the use of sophisticated classical pieces as background music, realistic sound effects and wonderfully articulate narrators. Although the series was marketed as a partnership between Ladybird and Pickwick International and the books and accompanying cassettes were sold together in blister packs, the Ladybird texts could be (and were) sold independently of the accompanying audio cassettes, many texts drafted and published years before the recording of the audio material. This has rendered the cassettes all the more sought after not only by those who fondly remember the recordings but by avid collectors of Ladybird books.
Story Teller
Story Teller (1982-1985) was a magazine partwork which was published by Marshall Cavendish. Each magazine featured a myriad of children’s stories and poems, ranging from traditional folk tales to an ample selection of more contemporary stories, some of which was original material. Much like Pickwick’s Tell-A-Tale Series, each Story Teller magazine was accompanied by an audio cassette tape which presented the material. Beautifully narrated by professional voice actors, the cassettes were recorded to charming background music and included realistic sound effects. Unlike the Ladybird books which accompanied the Tell-A-Tale cassettes, the Story Teller magazines, which were released fortnightly, were produced exclusively for the partwork series. In the spirit of a partwork series, longer stories were divided over multiple issues of the magazine and accompanying audio recordings, which encouraged the fan-base to enthusiastically buy the next issue.
The original series ran for 26 issues and paved the way for Story Teller 2, Little Story Teller (aimed at a younger audience), three Christmas Specials and a special release entitled ‘ My Big Book of Fairy Tales’ (containing 73 of the ‘best stories’ from the original release but with no accompanying audio cassette).
Once Upon A Time
Using the formula, which had been so successful in the Story Teller line, Fabbri Publishing attempted to produce a partwork which paralleled both the commercial success and popularity of the Marshall Cavendish partwork. The Once Upon A Time Series emerged. Though popular in its own right, Once Upon A Time never succeeded in reaching the level of success which Story Teller enjoyed. Once Upon A Time was formatted much the same as Story Teller; a series of partwork storybooks accompanied by audio cassettes which narrated the material. Like the Marshall Cavendish series, the books were neither published nor sold independently of the audio cassettes. Unlike Story Teller, however, Once Upon A Time focused on an individual story each issue and mostly retold the stories of Hans Christian Andersen and The Brothers Grimm. 60 issues were produced in total.
Of the countless children’s cassette series from this golden age of audio books, The Tell-A-Tale Series, Story Teller and Once Upon A Time are perhaps the best remembered and most sought after on online platform markets such as Ebay. The entire Story Teller line was semi-professionally digitised (beautifully and to a very high quality) about 15 years ago but has since vanished from circulation. Some, though not all, of the stories from Once Upon A Time have found a home on a YouTube Channel devoted to same.
On a related note and in celebration of the upcoming first year anniversary of our website, we at the Ladybird Pickwick Project have been delighted to launch our very own YouTube Channel. The channel, in addition to our website and forums, offers a collaborative community platform which strives to preserve, digitise and share the stories of The Tell-A-Tale Series before they are lost to time.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLUtNMTOhagb5lBU0h6GPQA
We really hope that you enjoy listening.
We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all the very best for 2021!