Where shall we play today?

I suspect that most parents have half a dozen children’s books that they really love because they take one back to when their children were little. The main books that the children used to like having read to them, tucked up in bed, tired and clean and innocent and just the way that perfect little children should be....


The main book that Son-who-watches-films liked having read to him was Roald Dahl’s ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’. He liked this so much and we read it so many times that in the end I wrote and illustrated a sequel for him. I can still recall the villains – Boggis, Bunce and Bean.


Among those which Bryony and Helen both liked were ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ by Eric Carle and ‘What a Mess’ by Frank Muir and Joseph Wright.


My favourite from the days of reading to them was "Where Shall We Play Today?” written and illustrated by Gilly Meredith. This latter is one of those picture books whose text sticks in the mind for many years afterwards. “Shall we play in the dustbin?” “ No, that’s too dirty and the dustmen might take us away!” I recently bought a copy of this just for nostalgia’s sake. It now rests on my bookshelves with other picture books like “Farm Babies” with the little foal, Trotty, from my own childhood and Terry Pratchett’s ‘Where’s My Cow’. This latter post-dates all my children being at the picture book stage – it was for my benefit. I’ve never really grown up...