The Promise of Happiness

Originally published in paperback in 1982, this is a study of the best children's fiction of the previous hundred years.

Part I. Theory and Experience: 1. The terms of reference; 2. Looking back into the blank of my infancy; 3. The history of children - little innocents and limbs of Satan; Part II. Texts and Contexts: The Old Books: 4. The lesser great tradition; 5. Class and classic - the greatness of Arthur Ransome; 6. Girl or boy: home and away; 7. Let's be friends; 8. Cult and culture: a political-psychological excursus; Part III. Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained: The New Work: 9. History absolves nobody - ritual and romance; 10. Rumours of angels and spells in the suburbs; 11. Experiments with time and notes on nostalgia; 12. Love and death in children's novels; 13. Resolution and independence; Bibliography; Index.