The Child that Books Built

The Child that Books Built is Francis Spufford's celebrated memoir and investigation into childhood and reading.

'Anyone who reads or ever read children's books - read this. It's a joy.' Irish Times
'Exhilarating.' New York Times Book Review
'Sublime.' Peter Ackroyd, The Times

** An Evening Standard, Daily Telegraph, Independent, Guardian and Irish Times Book of the Year.

'Anyone who reads or ever read children's books - read this. It's a joy.' Irish Times
'Exhilarating.' New York Times Book Review
'Sublime.' Peter Ackroyd, The Times

** An Evening Standard, Daily Telegraph, Independent, Guardian and Irish Times Book of the Year. **

What would you find if you went back and re-read your favourite books from childhood?

In The Child That Books Built Francis Spufford revisits all those childhood obsessions: fairy tales; Where the Wild Things Are; The Lord of the Rings;The Chronicles of Narnia; Little House on the Prairie; The Wind in the Willows; The Earthsea Trilogy and more. In these treasured tales Francis Spufford discovers both delight and sadness - the thrill as worlds of imagination opened up before him mixed with the memories of a boy who retreated into books when faced with a family tragedy.