by, a fall in the numbers of good new writers. The wealth of talent that had emerged in
the third quarter of the century was not matched in the years that followed. It remained
to be seen whether this trend was cyclical and would be reversed with better times or
whether it was the new reality. Books were being hit by television, videotape, computer
games and various social and educational developments; and multimedia was advancing
over the horizon. But there were favourable signs: among them the growth of a serious
interest in children’s literature in colleges and elsewhere, and the arrival in parenthood
of a generation young enough to have grown up on good books itself. It was still possible
to look hopefully to the future.
ReferencesDarton, F.J.H. (1932/1982) Children’s Books in England: Five Centuries of Social Life, 3rd edn,
rev. Brian Alderson, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Opie, I and Opie, P. (1955) The Oxford Nursery Rhyme Book, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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