The Child that Books Built - Couverture souple

What would you find if you went back and reread all of your favourite books from childhood? Francis Spufford discovers both delight and sadness, in this memoir. Re-reading and re-living these books, and investigating their literary origins and rich histories, Francis Spufford reveals what it was like to be an obsessive reader as a child. As the book unfolds, so too he gradually uncovers his own childhood and his unique reason for taking refuge in stories from a world full of unbearable knowledge.

Francis Spufford has edited two acclaimed literary anthologies and a collection of essays on the history of technology. His first book, 'I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination', was awarded the Writers Guild for Best Non-fiction Book of 1996 and a Somerset Maugham Award. He lives in London.