Sam Leith is Literary Editor of the Spectator. He has also written extensively for the Guardian, TLS, Financial Times, Telegraph and Daily Mail, and was a judge for the 2015 Man Booker Prize. His previous books include You Talkin' To Me?: Rhetoric from Aristotle to Trump and Beyond, and Write To The Point: How to be Clear, Correct, and Persuasive on the Page.
<p>Do you remember the first time you fell in love with a book?</p><p>'The Haunted Wood is a marvel.' Philip Pullman</p><p>The stories we read as children extend far beyond our childhoods; they are a</p><p>window into our deepest hopes, joys and anxieties. They reveal our past –</p><p>collective and individual, remembered and imagined – and invite us to dream</p><p>up different futures.</p><p>In a pioneering history of children’s literature, from the ancient world to the</p><p>present day, Sam Leith reveals the magic of our most cherished stories, and</p><p>the ways in which they have shaped and consoled entire generations.</p><p>Excavating the complex lives of beloved writers, Leith offers a humane</p><p>portrait of a genre – one acutely sensitive to its authors’ distinct contexts.</p>
