大象传媒

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 first of five original essays, Katherine Rundell examines how some of the greatest writers in literature have failed in their attempt to write for a young readership, from Tolstoy鈥檚 bleak and bloodthirsty stories to Graham Greene鈥檚 cute picture books. Being a great writer does not guarantee that you will have the same brilliance when it comes to younger readers.

For Oxford academic Katherine Rundell, creating books for children is the most challenging writing of all. She explores what it takes to write for children and why it can bring out the best or worst in writers.

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 大象传媒 Radio 4

Quotation credit:
Toni Morrison interview - "Art and Social Justice": A conversation on Broadway with Toni Morrison, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Sonia Sanchez, Wednesday, June 15, 2016, Ambassador Theatre, New York

Photo credit: Nina Subin