The Haunted Wood

‘Leith writes not with the voice of a scholar – although he’s certainly done his homework – but a born storyteller. I stayed up past bedtime three nights in a row to find out what happened next. You never feel that Leith is doing it by numbers: the fun and love shine through… This treasure chest of a book is packed with golden nuggets… The Haunted Wood captures the magic of childhood reading and casts a spell of its own.’ —Laura Freeman, The Times

‘One of the best surveys of children’s literature I’ve read. It takes a particular sort of sensibility to look at children’s literature with all the informed knowledge of a lifetime’s reading of ‘proper’ books, and neither patronise (terribly good for a children’s book) nor solemnly over-praise. Sam Leith hits the right spot again and again. The Haunted Wood is a marvel, and I hope it becomes a standard text for anyone interested in literature of any sort.’ —Philip Pullman

‘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

‘The book’s descriptions and analysis are full of context, humour and enthusiasm, as Leith celebrates the magic of endearing stories… The Haunted Wood is a feast of a book and one of 2024’s must-haves.’ —Independent, Book of the Month, ★★★★★

‘A delight…. an informative and illuminating journey into children’s books and their creators.’ —Julia Donaldson

‘Magisterial and wonderfully entertaining … The vast arc of The Haunted Wood teems with literary life. Leith combines a delightfully engaging prose style with erudition and empathy. But even more importantly, the book vividly and infectiously conveys a rapturous excitement for stories that are the foundation stones of our engagement with the world – both real and imagined.’ —Lucy Lethbridge, Prospect

‘A wonderful book that rediscovers the magic of childhood reading and explores the complexity of some of our best loved authors.’ —Nina Stibbe

‘A joyous foray into the magic of children’s fiction…From Lewis Carroll to Roald Dahl and Harry Potter, Sam Leith’s engrossing book is more than a history — it’s a celebration. The Haunted Wood is a Gringotts vault of everything you could possibly want kept safe about children’s literature.’ Financial Times

‘How children imagine the world and how the world imagines children are questions of perennial interest. The process by which “children’s literature” came to be a distinct phenomenon is central to understanding the issues; and here is an exuberant, very wide-ranging, irrepressibly funny, consistently insightful survey of that story, as much a delight to read as the best of its subject matter.’ —Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury

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

‘Sam Leith is the best kind of guide to this world in which we once wandered. He is fair-minded but terrifically opinionated; good on secondary sources without getting bogged down; excellent at analysing the technical merits of a story but not too grown-up to forget how he once listened to them… There are so many old friends to meet here, so many authors you long for other people to read, and now perhaps they shall.’ —Melanie McDonagh, Evening Standard

‘A gorgeous, loving and, most of all, learned guide to the stories that make us who we are.’ —Hadley Freeman

‘Reading The Haunted Wood affords you a bird’s-eye view of history, and what you see from such a vantage point is something like Willy Wonka’s chocolate river, coursing from Aesop to Rowling, crammed to the banks with magical wardrobes, Gruffalos, pirate hooks, cats in hats and all the rest… We can only be grateful that Leith has taken such time and care to compile a thorough history. The Haunted Wood is a Gringotts vault of everything you could possibly want kept safe about children’s literature.’ —Charlotte Stroud, Financial Times

‘Leith manages all this in a supremely engaging style (“Nuts to the Mr Men”), dotting the survey with lively vignettes… Leith’s analysis of Goodnight Moon, a multilayered picture book by Margaret Wise Brown, is a masterclass of imaginative criticism, both hilarious and erudite… Leith has synthesised a vast amount of material and produced a marvellously charming and enjoyable history for the general reader, as well as a spirited polemic on the importance of children’s literature.’ —Literary Review

‘One of The Haunted Wood’s great strengths is Leith’s awareness of just how important children’s literature is, that the moral and political lessons it inculcates, or confirms — or in some cases dispels — are all the more vital for being preached in childhood… a terrific book, full of high-grade lit-crit and undimmed personal enthusiasm — I loved Leith’s story of being summoned upstairs by a child’s scream, only to find his eight-year-old daughter reading “that bit” in Charlotte’s Web.’ —D.J. Taylor, Spectator (World) ‘Seriously delightful, and delightfully serious… all of us who love to read started here, and Sam Leith does a wonderful job of reminding us how and why it happened.’ —Lee Child

‘From Wordsworth to Wonderland, and the Hundred Acre Wood to Hogwarts, Sam Leith’s history of children’s literature is as surprising and playful as the stories themselves. Written in punchy, energetic prose, this isn’t only a set of love letters to the authors who have shaped generations of readers. It’s a reminder that their books continue to be little time machines that can transport even the most jaded of adults back to the imaginative world of childhood.’ —Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, author of The Story of Alice

‘A history as beguiling, peculiar and immersive as the field it describes – and the alluring, creepy woods into which it leads us, never to return…’ —Lemony Snicket

‘Leith’s monumental and invigorating history of this especially pungent branch of literature… Sam Leith provides a social context for all the audacious innovations which enriched, expanded and gingered up the genre.’ —Patricia Craig, Irish Times

‘This book is a delight… the great joy of this book is rather more simple. It comes with walking, arm-in-arm with a fellow pilgrim, back between the fur coats, back down the rabbit hole, back through the very walls, that became the world all around, and into the Hundred Acre Wood, where all your old friends have been waiting for you all this time… I have devoured my review copy with an almost unseemly relish.’ —Simon Evans, The Critic

‘A tribute to these first experiences of readerly joy… to read it through is to emerge quite in awe of Leith’s erudition and conviviality, and to see the world of children and their books … newly enriched.’ —Ben Phillips, Tablet

Sam Leith is Literary Editor of the Spectator. He has also written extensively for the Guardian, TLS, Financial Times, Telegraph and Daily Mail, and was a judge for the 2015 Man Booker Prize. His previous books include You Talkin’ To Me?- Rhetoric from Aristotle to Trump and Beyond, and Write To The Point- How to be Clear, Correct, and Persuasive on the Page.