[citation needed]
but it's a good fact (or otherwise), so I think I'll keep it anyway.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:40, archived)

see above

( Azra3l Lubrication Persuasion and Brute Force ™, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:41, archived)

disputed...
"The rarest Ladybird book - so elusive, it seems, that not one collector has even seen one - is The Computer from the How it works series, produced privately for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in 1972."
www.independent.co.uk/money/spend-save/this-is-how-it-works-bunnikin-wonk-and-the-tinker-will-make-their-owners-richer-547624.html

This is a mystery.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:46, archived)

book published in the late 60s
custom one ordered a few years later, maybe?
( Azra3l Lubrication Persuasion and Brute Force ™, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:47, archived)

1971 seems to be the first edition,
the above citation appears to be some kind of paraphrase of Ladybird's own text on the subject, which doesn't mention a date but has simply been assumed to be in correct chronological order.
www.ladybird.co.uk/aboutus/companyhistory.html
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:51, archived)

ahh ahaha
1969
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:53, archived)

so..
the 60s then... ;p
( Azra3l Lubrication Persuasion and Brute Force ™, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:59, archived)

by the skin of your teeth :D

( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Tue 12 May 2009, 2:00, archived)

Aww,
I was just eBaying to see if I could get a copy to take into my open-notes Computer Science exams. You're allowed one textbook, and I'd have liked that one.
( MooCow_Byter, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:48, archived)

Hah, found it.
Can't be that rare, I found two copies selling for under a fiver each. Maybe reprints, though.
( MooCow_Byter, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:51, archived)

brown cover?

( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:54, archived)

No, the 1979 cover.
I misread the bit on rarity and thought it applied to all versions of the book, not just the MoD one.
( MooCow_Byter, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:56, archived)

Even I've got that one.
And the Usborne Spotter's Guide to Dinosaurs, however much sense that does or does not make.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Tue 12 May 2009, 2:01, archived)