The Haunted Wood

Author: Sam Leith

British Isles | United Kingdom, Great Britain | c 1800 to c 1900 | 20th century | 21st century | Holidays & seasonal interest | Biography: literary | Literature: history & criticism | Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 | Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 | Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers | Literary reference works | Literary companions, book reviews & guides | Children’s & teenage literature studies | 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 | Social & cultural history

Published on 5^th September 2024 by Oneworld Publications in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 592 pages
234mm x 153mm | 0g

'A MARVEL' PHILIP PULLMANDo you remember the first time you fell in love with a book?Maybe you tumbled down a rabbit hole, flew out of your bedroom window, or found the key to a secret garden. And in the silence of that moment, your whole life changed forever.

The stories we read as children are indelible in our memories; reaching far beyond our childhoods, they are a window into our deepest hopes, joys and anxieties. They reveal our past – collective and individual, remembered and imagined – and invite us to dream up different futures.

In a pioneering history of the children’s literary canon, The Haunted Wood reveals the magic of childhood reading, from the ancient tales of Aesop, through the Victorian and Edwardian golden age to new classics. Excavating the complex lives of our most beloved writers, Sam Leith offers a humane portrait of a genre and celebrates the power of books to inspire and console entire generations.

***'Profoundly erudite and gloriously entertaining, this is the most purely enjoyable literary history I have ever read.' Tom Holland'Sam Leith has been encyclopedic and forensic in this journey through children's books. It's a joy for anyone who cares or wonders why we have children's literature.' Michael Rosen'Scholarly but wholly accessible and written with such love, The Haunted Wood is an utter joy.' Lucy Mangan