40 Blue Peter Books.

Blue Peter books 1 -40.

I am the proud owner of a full set of Blue Peter books (Annuals) although they were not officially called annuals until 2004.

The first Blue Peter book was published by Lutterworth, in time for Christmas 1964, and had a price tag of nine shillings and six pence. It was the book that 5 million young viewers had been waiting for, and was a sell out.

A new Blue Peter book, published by BBC followed every year until 1985. Each book was packed with highlights of the previous years adventures, makes and Blue Peter traditions.

In 1986 BBC enterprises withdrew from its 20 year partnership, and so no book was published that year.

In 1987 book 23 was published by Macmillan books. Books 24 (1988) and 25 (1989) were published by Ringpress. A further gap year followed in 1990. Books 26 (1991) and 27 (1992) were published by World books.

A longer gap followed between 1993 and 1997. Then for the programmes 40th Anniversary the book returned, books 28 to 31 were published by Egmont World.

BBC Worldwide took over for books 32 and 33 (2002 and 2003) but in 2004 BBC Worldwide pulled out once again.

It was getting late in the year to find a replacement, however the then Editor of Blue Peter Richard Marson spotted a range of Annuals produced by a company called Pedigree. He arranged a meeting, they turned out to be annual specialists and more than happy to take on the title. So Book 34 or the 2005 Annual was published in time for Christmas 2004. The Pedigree published books, now state that they are Annuals on the cover. However in a nod to collectors like myself the spine still says book.

Book 40 (2011 Annual)

Pedigree increased the content of each annual and produced a much glossier product, and as a result sales increased. Pedigree published the Blue Peter annual for 7 years, with book 40 (2011 Annual) being the last one published to date.

Book 16

I started my personal collection back in 1979, with book 16, and the tradition started of getting the Blue Peter Book each year for Christmas or my Birthday, which is also in December. I then started looking for back issues in second hand bookshops. A family holiday highlight was going to the second hand bookshop on Padstow harbour in Cornwall, looking for old Blue Peter books.

With books 1 & 2 Christmas 2011

Books 1 and 2 were really hard to find,but as a total surprise, for Christmas 2011 my Brother found copies of these on Ebay and bought them for me. My collection was complete.

However I am hoping that the BBC will decide to produce a special annual for the programmes 60th Anniversary in 2018.