'This is a book about childhood, but it is not a mere literary essay, it is a work of the widest learning, exploring the whole field of the subject ... a book rich in ideas, rich in information, rich in wisdom ...indeed, a kind of Anatomy of Childhood.' The Listener 'An enchanting book, and one that is certain of deepening affection in every house into which it finds its way.' Observer 'Only Walter de la Mare could have devised these ceremonies and been the master of them. In this conjuration of childhood he has amassed its evidence as displayed in many autobiographies, and has set against this the letters, diaries, stories and verses of these children ... His company ranges from mill hands and chimney sweeps to two queens of England; it embraces the whole gamut of the English poets; mathematicians and philosophers, though not so plentiful, are discovered to have been children once.' New Statesman

 

There are 658 pages in this book. This book was published 2010 by Faber & Faber .

Walter de la Mare (1873-1956) was born in Charlton, Kent. In 1890, aged sixteen, he began work in the statistics department of the London office of Anglo-American Oil. In 1907 he published his first collection of poems under the pseudonym Walter Ramal, but he soon established a wide popular reputation in his own name as a leading poet of the Georgian period with volumes like The Listeners (1912), Motley (1918) and The Veil (1921). He also wrote poetry and short stories for younger readers; Peacock Pie (1913), a collection of poems for children, is now considered a twentieth-century classic.