Light and lustrous, commanding and transporting, the childrens book is superb, daily mail about the author a. Despite byatts tendency to tell the reader everything she has discovered in her background research for a novel, the childrens book is an engaging work filled with interesting characters both involved in and discussing art, politics, class differences, education, raising children, womens rights, and sex. From the booker prizewinning, bestselling author of possession. Her novel the children s book was shortlisted for the 2009 man booker prize and won the james tait black memorial prize. Buy the childrens book by byatt, a s from amazons fiction books store.
Ive read several of her novels, but the children s book is my favourite for the way it vividly evokes bohemian life at the turn of the 20th century in england. Byatt has said in interviews that fairy tales and the childrens books of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such as e. It follows the adventures of several interrelated families, adults and children, from 1895 through. Byatt is a novelist, shortstory writer and critic of international renown. Shortlisted for the man booker prizea spellbinding novel, at.
Byatts lengthy 2009 family saga the childrens book engagingly rectifies this emphasis by looking at a large clan and their friends involved with the fabian and arts and crafts movements from the 1890s through the first world war. Everyday low prices on a huge range of new releases and classic fiction. The childrens book by as byatt as byatts charged account of the perils of artistic creation chills alex clark. The childrens house is a great book and byatt is a great writer. Nesbits magical stories and the wind in the willows, inspired her to write the novel. The childrens book is a 2009 novel by british writer a. While the central character of olive is a writer of childrens literature, supporting her large family with her writing, the title of the book refers to the children in the book. It captures the magic of childhood before going on, ruthlessly, to show how adults create children, only to destroy them. Byatt is the author of numerous novels, including the quartet the virgin in the garden, still life, babel tower and a whistling woman. I loved following the history from the 1890s through wwi and the literary, arts and crafts, and political movements in the victorian age. The childrens book by as byattas byatts ambitious novel is fl awed by her need to educate her readers, says adam marsjones.