Erudite and gossipy, this book is irresistible: its subject is books and the (sometimes) weird people who wrote them, in particular those individuals who have felt impelled to write for children about childhood, because in some profound sense they never left it, or deeply regretted the loss of it when they did.

Populist publishing is mentioned in passing. Biggles gets a more-than-friendly nod, my favourite Enid Blyton is comprehensively panned, but so humorously that I had to forgive Leith, the Harry Potter phenomenon is duly canvassed. In my childhood there was the Italian boy who read ‘Sporting Globe’ to his illiterate father, while his sisters read romance pulps. There was a child who told me later that the primer was a revelation – no-one got drunk or threatened to kill anyone else. I realise that only in school did reading happen for many children.

However, we are left in no doubt that the real subjects of The Haunted Wood are the important books most of us have heard of, or watched on screen, but less often read, the ones that count in the cultural-literacy stakes: Alice, Mowgli, Black Beauty, Willows and Winnie and so on, up to Philip Pullman, whose blurb on the jacket considers the book ‘A marvel’ (I agree). Few scholarly books can possibly be as entertaining as this one that is about great stories. And the reader is getting, among other benefits, a crash course in social history. Don’t miss it.

The prologue comes with a warning – it is a highly personal and selective history from a privileged background. I advise you, if your favourites don’t rate a mention, write your own history, but don’t call it ‘The Enchanted Wood: A History of my Childhood Reading’ because I’m already using that.

Reviewed by Judith Crabb

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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.