麻豆约拍

In this gripping investigation of children鈥檚 fiction, award-winning author Katherine Rundell makes a passionate argument for a literature that is often underrated, yet whose magic can live on inside us for the rest of our lives. The best children鈥檚 books need to be good enough both for the hungriest child and the wisest, sharpest adult.

In the second of five original essays about children鈥檚 fiction, Katherine reveals how the fashion of writing for younger readers has changed - from the moral instruction of the earliest literature, telling children what to do and who to obey, to books that offered children intellectual freedom and huge worlds.

Katherine explores the visions of some of the greatest writers, including Tove Jansson, CS Lewis and Tolkein. She discovers a world of literature that opens up spaces of imagination that can enchant or terrify, introducing us to characters and ideas that captivate us.

Katherine Rundell is an acclaimed writer for children, winning Author of the Year and Book of the Year for Impossible Creatures at the British Book Awards 2024, and winner of the Costa Children鈥檚 Book Award.

Written and presented by Katherine Rundell
Producer: Jo Glanville
Editor: Kirsten Lass
Production Co-ordinator: Heather Dempsey
Studio Engineer: Dan King

A Loftus Media production for 麻豆约拍 Radio 4

Photo credit: Nina Subin