Can you remember the first time you fell in love with a book?

The stories we read as children matter. The best ones are indelible in our memories; reaching far beyond our childhoods, they are a window into our deepest hopes, joys and anxieties. They reveal our past – collective and individual, remembered and imagined – and invite us to dream up different futures.

In a pioneering history of the children’s literary canon, The Haunted Wood reveals the magic of childhood reading, from the ancient tales of Aesop, through the Victorian and Edwardian golden age to new classics. Excavating the complex lives of our most beloved writers, Sam Leith offers a humane portrait of a genre and celebrates the power of books to inspire and console entire generations.

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‘A MARVEL’ PHILIP PULLMAN

‘A DELIGHT’  JULIA DONALDSON

‘GLORIOUSLY ENTERTAINING’  TOM HOLLAND

Remember the books that shaped your childhood, sparked your imagination, and ignited a lifelong love of reading? In The Gifts of Reading for the Next Generation, some of the world’s most beloved authors share their own transformative reading experiences – the books and stories that set them on the path of becoming the readers and writers they are today.

Following the success of its first edition, The Gifts of Reading, this heartwarming collection of essays is a testament to the enduring power of books. By exploring the stories that shaped them, our authors provide a powerful guide to fostering a love of reading in the children and young people in your life.

With contributions from Tristan Bancks, William Boyd, Shankari Chandran, Horatio Clare, Nicola Davies, Imtiaz Dharker, Ursula Dubosarsky, Maisie Fieschi, Pico Iyer, Wayne Karlin, Colum McCann, JohnMichael McCann, Ann Morgan, Sir Michael Morpurgo, Dina Nayeri, Matt Ottley, Nguy?n Phan Qu? Mai, Alice Pung, Diana Reid, Nilanjana Roy, Nikesh Shukla, Nardi Simpson, Madeleine Thien, Thelma Young Lutunatabua, and John Wood, and an afterword by Julia Eccleshare.

All royalties generously donated to the two organisations founded by John Wood, Room to Read, and U-Go, promoting literacy and education for girls and young women.

Literature has inspired every civilisation, from Greek myth to today’s graphic novels. John Sutherland, who has researched, taught and written on the entire glorious span of human literary activity, here guides readers on a journey ‘through the looking glass’ to show how literature from across the world can transport us, transfix us, and teach us about ourselves.

He introduces key works, from the Epic of Gilgamesh and Shakespeare to T.S. Eliot, George Orwell and Margaret Atwood, and looks afresh at literature’s links to power, identity and taste. From the rude jokes within Anglo-Saxon riddles to the guilty pleasures of potboilers and fan fiction, this celebratory guide offers wit, humour and deep learning to all who enjoy literature, and who want to understand it anew.

Little Histories – Inspiring Guides for Curious Minds

Do you remember the first time you fell in love with a book?

The stories we read as children matter. The best ones are indelible in our memories; reaching far beyond our childhoods, they are a window into our deepest hopes, joys and anxieties. They reveal our past – collective and individual, remembered and imagined – and invite us to dream up different futures.

In a pioneering history of the children’s literary canon, The Haunted Wood reveals the magic of childhood reading, from the ancient tales of Aesop, through the Victorian and Edwardian golden age to new classics. Excavating the complex lives of our most beloved writers, Sam Leith offers a humane portrait of a genre and celebrates the power of books to inspire and console entire generations.

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‘Profoundly erudite and gloriously entertaining, this is the most purely enjoyable literary history I have ever read.’  Tom Holland

‘Sam Leith has been encyclopedic and forensic in this journey through children’s books. It’s a joy for anyone who cares or wonders why we have children’s literature.’ Michael Rosen

‘Scholarly but wholly accessible and written with such love, The Haunted Wood is an utter joy.’  Lucy Mangan

‘Handler’s memoir, although subtle, ironic and full of dry wit, still pulses with that same childlike enthusiasm for books. Read it and you might just catch the bug.’  THE SUNDAY TIMES

Known to most as Lemony Snicket, the tormented narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events, Daniel Handler spends his days writing – for children and adults; film and television; and, occasionally, the accordion. Mainly, he writes about horrible things: orphans, abusive uncles, poison, murder, arson, bad grammar?

A love letter to the consoling and terrifying power of books, And Then? And Then? What Else?  traces Handler’s life through morbid poetry collections, eccentric acting troupes, hazy midnight taxi rides, second-hand bookstores and psychiatric units. Traversing his personal canon from his first encounter with Baudelaire to Vladimir Nabokov, Elizabeth Bishop and The Pet Shop Boys, Handler offers a witty, poignant exploration of reading, writing and why we tell stories.

‘Extraordinary… highly entertaining.’  DAILY TELEGRAPH

‘This erudite, vulnerable, funny and idiosyncratic book ranks among his best. Grown-up fans of Lemony Snicket will enjoy discovering the rest of the story.’ WALL STREET JOURNAL

‘The course of true love never did run smooth’

Hermia loves Lysander. But she must marry Demetrius or be condemned to life in a convent. Together, Hermia and Lysander plan to elope to escape their fate. But Helena, Hermia’s best friend, secretly loves Demetrius and, hoping to win his heart, tells him about the plan.

Deep in the forest, the four unlucky lovers cross paths with Oberon, the jilted fairy king. When a powerful, love-inducing flower is put to nefarious use, a case of multiple mistaken identities sets in motion a night of magic and mayhem that could change all of their lives forever.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is Shakespeare’s magical romantic comedy of trickery, love triangles and mistaken identities.

Discover STAGED, a limited collection of Shakespeare’s unabridged plays celebrating the genius of the Bard and the tropes that continue to delight YA readers to this day.

Explore the rest of the STAGED collection:
As You Like It – With a foreword by Talia Hibbert
Hamlet – With a foreword by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
Macbeth – With a foreword by Kat Delacorte
Much Ado About Nothing – With a foreword by Holly Bourne
Romeo and Juliet – With a foreword by Jennifer Niven

‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark’

The King of Denmark is dead. When Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, meets the King’s ghost and discovers he was murdered, he swears vengeance against the killer: his father’s brother, Claudius, who has married Hamlet’s mother and taken the throne.

Furious at this betrayal, Hamlet devises a complex plot to reveal the truth and enact his revenge. But Claudius has a devious plan of his own. Together, they will bring devastation to the entire court.

Hamlet is Shakespeare’s timeless story of grief and a revenge so unrelenting that by curtain’s close, all the major players are dead.

Discover STAGED, a limited collection of Shakespeare’s unabridged plays that celebrates the genius of the Bard and the tropes that continue to delight YA readers to this day.

Explore the rest of the STAGED collection:
As You Like It – With a foreword by Talia Hibbert
Macbeth – With a foreword by Kat Delacorte
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – With a foreword by Becky Albertalli
Much Ado About Nothing – With a foreword by Holly Bourne
Romeo and Juliet – With a foreword by Jennifer Niven

‘It will have blood, they say: blood will have blood‘

On a bleak, stormy night in Scotland, three witches prophesy: Macbeth will be a lord twice-over and Macbeth will be king; but Banquo’s sons will also be kings.

When the witches’ predictions start to come true, the ambitious Lady Macbeth vows to help her husband become King of Scotland and hold on to the throne – by any means necessary. But as the pursuit of power leads them down a dark and bloody path, the Macbeths soon begin to unravel.

Macbeth is Shakespeare’s famously blood-soaked tale of greed and prophecy so powerful that superstitions about the curse of ‘The Scottish Play’ continue to this day.

Discover STAGED, a limited collection of Shakespeare’s unabridged plays that celebrates the genius of the Bard and the tropes that continue to delight YA readers to this day.

Explore the rest of the STAGED collection:
As You Like It – With a foreword by Talia Hibbert
Hamlet – With a foreword by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – With a foreword by Becky Albertalli
Much Ado About Nothing – With a foreword by Holly Bourne
Romeo and Juliet – With a foreword by Jennifer Niven