University of Roehampton Favourite Children’s Book Poll

Following the recent BBC Culture Children’s Book poll, we are inviting University of Roehampton staff and students and the wider NCRCL community to vote for their Top 5 children’s books.

BBC Culture Survey Overview

BBC Culture recently conducted a poll to find the ‘greatest children’s books of all time’ and the results were published in May 2023.

Dr Lisa Sainsbury—Associate Professor in the School of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences—was invited to take part in the survey and to nominate her Top 10 children’s books. Although the task is clearly impossible and highly subjective, she couldn’t resist the challenge. You can find out which books she selected here.

One of Dr Sainsbury’s chosen books made the Top 20 and you can see what she has to say about Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights (1995) here.

Roseanna English, a recent BA English Literature graduate and recipient of a University of Roehampton internship this summer, has been working with Dr Sainsbury to promote the MA Children’s Literature (Distance Learning) programme. As part of her role, Rosie read the Top 10 surveyed children’s books and is releasing TikTok videos on each of them to coincide with our upcoming children’s literature conference on 17th November 2023 (details below). Please follow us on TikTok to see what she has to say: https://www.tiktok.com/@roehamptonenglish

University of Roehampton’s Favourite Children’s Books: How to Take Part

In the run up to our 17th November NCRCL conference we are inviting colleagues and students from across the University of Roehampton and the NCRCL to vote for their Top 5 favourite books from the international field of children’s literature. We will announce the results at our conference and will share them online soon after. We will follow the same guidelines as those provided by BBC Culture.

When choosing the children’s books you want to vote for, please follow these guidelines:

  • Think about books mostly read by children 12 and under, but you can nominate any book that you think is aimed at children.
  • Books of any genre count (including picture books).
  • The books might be ones you enjoyed as a child or books you enjoy reading to children – or they can be books you appreciate from a purely artistic point of view.
  • We’re counting individual books, not whole series e.g. vote for The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, not the whole Narnia series.
  • We want to reflect and celebrate children’s books from every nation and region, so we would like to encourage each voter to consider books from a variety of countries, and in different languages. The only requirement is that they must have been published (not self-published) in at least one country.

Please vote for your favourite children’s books here.

Pat Pinsent Memorial Service and NCRCL Conference: Friday 17th November 2023

At beginning of term, we received sad news of the passing of our friend and colleague, Dr Pat Pinsent—you can read the obituary here.

With the blessing of Pat’s daughter, Frances, we have now confirmed the date of a memorial service. The memorial takes place in the Chapel at Digby Stuart at the University of Roehampton and will be followed by a children’s literature conference in Pat’s memory.

Friday 17th November 2023

1.15 to 2.15 Memorial Service for Pat Pinsent at Digby Stuart Chapel, University of Roehampton.

2.15-2.45 Refreshments

2.45 to 6.00 NCRCL Conference in Memory of Pat Pinsent – in the Chapel and Covent Parlour, Digby Stuart College, University of Roehampton and online

Confirmed papers:

  • Alex Bubb: Eastern Classics for English Children: the Qur’an and the Ramayana as School Prize Books
  • Kirara Akashi: Edward Gorey’s Neo-Victorian Picturebooks: Unravelling the Dark Humours of Childhood Culture.
  • Catherine Archer: “In the first rank of books that influenced my girlhood”: why Charlotte Mary Yonge at 200 still matters.
  • Lisa Sainsbury: Troubling Optimism – Eeyore’s Tail and Tokens of Pessimism in Children’s Literature.
  • Mark Carter: G is for Gas Mask, Z is for Zeppelin: ABC Books of the First and Second World Wars.
  • Ian Kinane: An Ambiguous Ecopoetics? Rereading Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree Series in Adulthood.

If you would like to join us for the service or conference, please find booking options at the link below:

Memorial Service and NCRCL Conference in Memory of Dr Pat Pinsent | Roehampton University Online Store

In Memory of Dr Pat Pinsent, Principal Lecturer, English Literature, University of Roehampton

It is with great sadness that we share the news that Dr Pat Pinsent, Principal Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Roehampton (1967-1998), and founding member of the Catholic Women’s Network, died peacefully at her home in early September 2023.

Pat enjoyed a long career as a lecturer in the English Department at Roehampton and continued her relationship with the university as a Senior Research Fellow in Children’s Literature at the National Centre for Research in Children’s Literature from 1999. Pat was instrumental in setting up our Children’s Literature MA programme in the early 1990s and established the hugely popular Distance Learning mode, which continues to attract postgraduate students from across the globe. Pat was determined and inspirational in using distance-learning techniques to reach as many people as possible—indeed, this commitment to inclusivity was central to her faith. Pat maintained a strong connection with Digby Stuart College and Roehampton and was a regular donor to hardship bursaries and scholarships.

Prior to her post at Roehampton, Pat completed a PGCE (1955) and MA (1965) at the University of London. She was a medievalist and mathematician, teaching Maths and English in secondary schools (1955-1967), and English at the Open University (1974-1984). Pat met her husband, Henry, whilst studying mathematics. One of her later publications, Life with Grandpa (2018), draws on Pat’s rewarding experience of reading to Henry after he was diagnosed with dementia—Henry predeceased Pat in 2016. Pat was a prominent and prolific scholar in the fields of children’s literature and theology, achieving her PhD by publication at the University of Surrey in 1999. Pat’s staunch feminism led to her advocacy for women’s rights in the Church. As president of the Catholic Women’s Network, she edited its quarterly, Network, from 1984. She published numerous articles and books, including Children’s Literature and the Politics of Equality (1997); Religion, Children’s Literature, and Modernity in Western Europe 1750-2000 (co-editor, 2008); and the Bloomsbury Readers’ Guide to Children’s Literature (2016) —the latter is deemed to be ‘just amazing’ by Professor Peter Hunt. Pat was a long-serving committee member of IBBY UK and editor of the IBBYLink journal.

Our thoughts are with Pat’s children, Frances and Mark, and her grandchildren at this time. We remember Pat for her pioneering work on children’s literature and theology; for her faith, compassion, and kindness; for her constant loyalty to Roehampton. Those who worked closely with Pat—students and colleagues alike—remember her irreverent sense of humour and a disdain for bureaucratic demands made by ‘them’. As Professor Kim Reynolds recalls, ‘when I taught in an adjacent room, everyone wanted to be in there because there were regular gales of laughter’. Pat is remembered fondly by us all—we owe Pat a great deal and her work will not be forgotten.

Lisa Sainsbury, Associate Professor, English Literature, University of Roehampton
Laura Peters, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Academic Development and Sustainability, University of Roehampton

London Rare Books School Course on Children’s Books

Sarah Pyke—MA CHL and PhD alumna—is running a London Rare Books School course on children’s books from 26-30 June 2023. It’s pitched at MA level but is an introduction to the field, with an emphasis on materiality and book historical / bibliographical approaches. They will have a mixture of guest speakers, seminars and handling sessions, as well as visits to Peter Harrington rare booksellers and the Society of Friends’ Library.

More about the course can be found here:  https://ies.sas.ac.uk/london-rare-books-school/course-descriptions/childrens-books-0 

NCRCL members (and MA/PhD alumni) contributing to sessions include: Kay Waddilove on career novels; Emily Corbet on paratexts and 21st century trans YA and Mark Carter on ABC books.

New Children’s Books History Society Essay Prize

The Children’s Books History Society (CBHS) is launching a prize for best student essay 2024. The new competition is intended to promote the work of students beginning their studies, or academic scholars extending their research.

The CBHS promotes children’s literature of the past and was founded by Brian Alderson, book critic and children’s literature specialist, with the Friends of the Osborne Collection in Toronto. The Society publishes occasional papers, as well as three newsletters each year that feature articles and book reviews by academics and independent historians interested in the origins and development of children’s literature. It also organises talks plus study days, and judges the bi-annual Harvey Darton Award for a book that extends our knowledge of some aspect of the history of British children’s literature.

Essay subjects concerning any aspect of the history of children’s books will be considered – including studies of authors, illustrators, literary themes, printing, publishing and distribution of books.

Any current, or past student of children’s literature may submit an entry. Essays should be no longer than 3,000 words and have been completed in the past three years of study. The work may have been previously submitted as an exam entry at their place of study, but this is not a requirement. An endorsement from a college tutor or official, verifying that it is a student’s own work, will be required.

A shortlist of three essays will be peer reviewed by a panel of judges, who may invite minor revisions to the work. The winning entrant will be awarded a cash prize of £200, as well as a one-year membership subscription, and their essay will be published in the CBHS newsletter. Runners-up will be gifted a year’s membership to CBHS.

Entry forms can be downloaded from the Children’s Books History Society website www.cbhs.org.uk. Essays should be submitted by email as an attachment to V.deRijke@mdx.ac.uk by midnight on 31 July 2023. All entries will be acknowledged, and the winner will be invited to receive the award at the CBHS AGM in March 2024.

Cardiff BookTalk Event: Watership Down—Tuesday 9th May, 2023 at 19.00 BST

Cardiff BookTalk is hosting an online event on Tuesday 9th May focussing on various aspects of Richard Adams’ Watership Down.

The event will feature three twenty-minute papers by leading scholars, followed by an opportunity for audience questions and discussion.

Confirmed speakers are:

  • Catherine Butler: Cardiff University
  • Dimitra Fimi: University of Glasgow
  • Lisa Sainsbury: University of Roehampton

This free event will be held via Zoom and is open to all. For more information and to book a place, please visit https://cardiffbooktalk.wordpress.com/2023/03/29/richard-adams-watership-down/

Mastering Children’s Literature…

Guest post by Brenda Daniels

August 2019 came around and I was ready. My schedule had been cleared of anything that wasn’t
essential. I’d done what reading ahead of time I could and I had five empty files waiting to be filled.
The first file to be filled was Critical and Theoretical Perspectives or CTP. Alison Waller introduced
the module by asking us to think about theory visually…


[I interrupt the text here to say that at this point in the blog post writing I gathered my physical
files from the cupboard above my desk, opened the Documents folder on my computer and then turned
hot, cold, wild and despairing. My ‘Roehampton’ digital file had disappeared. After an hour of hair-tearing
and anxious moaning to my daughter I thought to look in my computer’s trash folder. And there was
‘Roehampton’, all organised and as complete as I remembered it. Press: Restore.]


Take two: … and even provided us with a picture of binoculars to indicate ‘perspective’. This
visual aspect was surprising and influential. Pictures went on to form a part of all my degree assignments,
from CTP itself through Form & Genre 2, British Children’s Literature, Writing for a Child Audience,
Archives, and to the dissertation itself. Here is a selection I created:

Fig 1: : Desire paradigm in Rapunzel (CTP)
Fig 2: Miss Clavel in Madeline (Form and Genre)
Fig 3: Bird-inspired hat (British Children’s Literature)
Fig 4: Graph (Archives)
Fig 5: Illustration (Creative Dissertation)

The theme of pictures was used by feminist writer Lissa Paul. In her book, Reading Other-ways,
which I read for CTP, Paul examines pictures with questions that can be applied to texts too. Questions
include: ‘Whose story is this? Who is the reader? Who is on top? Who is silenced?’ Together with the
pictures and this interrogative approach, Paul advocates a multi-theory method for readings, and an
eschewing of totalizing discourses. I liked this multi-theory approach. Just as I liked the positive view of
theories in CTP. Different theories, CTP explains, help give different readings which in turn give different
perspectives of the same text. Like the picture theme, this multi-theory emphasis had a lasting impact on
my work. In both my CTP assignment and in my creative dissertation I used a multi-theory approach. For
CTP I examined Rapunzel and Tangled through the lens of feminism, critical multicultural analysis, cultural
materialism and reader response theory. And for my creative dissertation, in keeping with ‘variety’, I
wrote four short stories, and infused them with some of the same theories. By the time it came to doing
the dissertation I had also come across oral history theory and used that in what became an aurally strong
product, one I accompanied with oral recordings of my stories.

Variety and picture emphasis merged in the most sublime way in Form & Genre 2 when I chose to
examine the subject of ‘emotion ekphrasis’. In three blog posts on three different children’s books, I
relished the challenge to explain how the books’ genres (a picture book, an illustrated historical fiction
novel, and a timeslip novel) combined with their individual forms to convey emotions through ekphrastic
expression. Choosing the blog post option assignment fitted with my career experience as a generalist journalist and blogger. This generalist/variety penchant was evident in my Archives assignment too in
which I examined three different archives with a total of six items. No single archive and similar, boring
items for me. Oh no. Instead – diversity! Fun! Stimulation!

Whilst a mixture of things is my natural go-to it is challenging to hold together, and to write about
thoroughly. Because I struggled in assignments to keep within the word limits and failed at times to more
deeply interrogate points (because of the word limit) I sometimes missed out on a thorough
understanding, application and opinion of theories. Whilst I still have a way to go in digging deep enough,
overall I am proud of attempting, in these multi-theory, multi-view assignments, what was termed by
Alison as ‘ambitious’. Although I struggled at a micro level to narrow my focus, by the time it came to
doing the final assignment – the creative dissertation reflective essay – upon the good advice of my
supervisor I managed to choose only one theory with which to look back on my four short stories: Reader
Response Theory. And if I look at the two years it took me to do the whole degree I did indeed focus on a
macro level. As mentioned at the start of this post I had whittled down all of my life responsibilities to the
most important only. This undoubtedly helped me to finish and pass the degree. Off the back of this,
going into 2022, I have fixed my goals as specifically focusing on child writing. I plan to look for a publisher
for my dissertation stories, write a picture book (how appropriate!), submit four stories to child
magazines and enter ten children’s writing competitions. Still, I carry into the new year more of a hope
than a determination that these plans will pan out. After all, in August 2019 I didn’t know that just a few
months later the world would enter the COVID-19 pandemic. I didn’t know that the subsequent
lockdowns would put a sad, grinding halt to my husband’s 33-year career in aviation. Or that our family
would hold their COVID breaths as my mother’s struggle with cancer deepened. Or that, just as I thought
things couldn’t get worse, my country would experience the most awful political unrest on top of a
growing unemployment crisis. But then, I didn’t know that the Master’s Degree in Children’s Literature
through the University of Roehampton (distance learning) would be the most marvellous antidote to
those struggles. I’m so thankful for these two years of mastering (or not) children’s literature and the
vision it has given me for the future.

Brenda Daniels is a part-time writer and editor by profession and especially enjoys reviewing books. She lives in South Africa with her extended family where she helps care for her grandchild during the week and is waiting impatiently for the next grandchild who is due very soon. In 2021 Brenda completed the Roehampton Master’s Degree in Children’s Literature, with distinction.

Me and Roehampton: a love story in three chapters

Guest post by Fanni Suto

The Meet cute

In the last year of my English Literature Master’s Degree in Budapest, Hungary, I was dreaming about going on Erasmus. I looked at the offer and discovered that the University of Roehampton was the only one in an English-speaking country. I immediately knew that the competition would probably be fierce – but the moment I read the description I knew I would do everything to get there. Not only was it in London, on a breath-taking campus, it was also offering classes in Children’s Literature and Creative Writing – two things I was dying to learn, but had almost no opportunity to do so in Hungary.

My dream came true, I won the scholarship. So in January, 2013 I arrived to Heathrow with a trembling heart. I’d always had a crush on London even from afar and up close it was all I’d imagined and more. During my five month stay I spent a lot of time in the university library, discovered that Children’s Literature could be studied seriously and that I felt very much at home in the freedom and diversity of London.

But every dream ends and I had to return to Hungary in May to finish my studies and to start my serious, adult life.

The Return

I wanted to come back to Roehampton the moment my feet touched the ground in Hungary, but for practical reasons I had to find a job instead. It was soul-sucking customer service work with a lot of stress and zero gratification. Every day I watched the students of the university next door flock to their classes and a year later I decided that I didn’t care, I had to return to school.

I applied for the Children’s Literature Master’s programme and started it in 2014.

I still think of it as this magical moment – I made a wish and made it come true. It was one of the most important years of my life.

Firstly, because I discovered many excellent works of English language children’s literature that had a huge impact on me and that I would have never read otherwise. Some of my favourites include: all the works of Shaun Tan, Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit, Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick and A stitch in time by Penelopé Lively. Secondly, I also gathered firsthand experience about life in the UK – a useful experience for my own writing, with most of my novels set in London.

I also volunteered at Wimbledon Book Festival, did a Leadership training and an internship at Battersea Art Centre. To conclude my studies I submitted a Creative Dissertation with three short stories inspired by The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. One of them, “Tale Everlasting” – which pays homage to Tuck Everlasting – has been published both in text and audio format, another one, “Cinderpatch” was published in an anthology in Hungarian translation this year.

Happily Ever After

Even more important is the after effect of my Roehampton year on my life. I currently live in France where I work as an English teacher. In the beginning I taught in primary schools, now I work with adults. I know that having a degree from a British university boosted my chances of getting my first job here and my knowledge of children’s literature helped me to use appropriate, authentic reading materials.

During my Erasmus semester I met Haley Jenkins who later went on to create Selcouth Station, a wonderful magazine and indie press that is very welcoming and supportive with upcoming writers. I have submitted multiple pieces to their website and in 2018 I was selected as one of the winners of their “love” themed chapbook competition. This is how my dark fairy tale “Death’s Daughter” was published in a beautiful edition. This was the first time I worked with an editor, which was a tough but great experience, and also the first ever cover with my name on it.

The books I read, the experiences I had during my time in Roehampton shape my life every day. One of the most powerful and inspiring thing that has recently happened to me is also an indirect consequence of my master’s. I finished my first novel manuscript, Macchiatos, My Friends and Other Things I Can’t Live Without this summer. It’s a sweet contemporary story about love and friends that’s set in South London. It so happens that the first person who read it was Marcus Sedgwick, one of my writing role models! He gave me a lot of encouragement and invaluable advice that will come in handy on my journey towards publication.

I think my example goes to show that the time we actually spend at the university is just the first step. The books we read, the connections we make, the things we learn can shape our lives even long after.

Fanni Suto was a student on the MA in Children’s Literature at Roehampton between 2013 and 2014.

Scholarship in Children’s Literature

TECHNE AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership 2022: Children’s Literature and Creative Writing

The English and Creative Writing team at Roehampton is pleased to announce that the current round of applications for our annual scholarships in children’s literature is open (studies commencing October 2022).

We invite applications from outstanding candidates for our TECHNE AHRC doctoral studentships. Studentships are supported in departments across the university, but ECW will consider applications for projects related to children’s literature or creative writing for children. Projects drawing on our archival holdings—such as the Richmal Crompton archive and historical collections—will be especially welcome, as will proposals that build on our research interests. These include, but are not limited to: young adult fiction; philosophy; environmental/eco-critical studies; historical fiction; the Robinsonade; memory; reading; oral histories; visual texts; print culture. The School is looking for candidates of the highest quality, capable of submitting a PhD thesis within 3 years. Applicants should have completed an MA degree in a relevant subject, such as children’s literature or creative writing for children. Applicants should also be able to demonstrate strong research capabilities and fluency in spoken and written English that meets the university’s entrance criteria for doctoral study.

The University of Roehampton is set on a beautiful, traditional campus in south-west London. The University provides its students with exceptional facilities, high quality teaching and a close-knit, collegiate experience. It has a diverse student body and a cosmopolitan outlook, with students from over 130 countries.

For more information and details of how to apply, please see our Graduate School pages:

https://www.roehampton.ac.uk/graduate-school/techne-ahrc-studentships/

Expressions of Interest should be sent by 3rd December 2021 to:

Dr. Lisa Sainsbury: L.Sainsbury@roehampton.ac.uk

Please visit https://www.roehampton.ac.uk/graduate-school/ to find out more about postgraduate research at Roehampton. For all non-academic queries relating to the studentships, please contact:

Centre for Childhood Cultures Upcoming Events

The Centre for Childhood Cultures based at Queen Mary University of London have just released their 2021/2022 programme of events including NCRCL’s Dr Alison Waller talking about Reading and Covid-19.

Alison Waller, Young People and YA Fiction in the Time of Covid-19

Thursday 28th October 5:00-6:30 pm.

Hybrid: GC203, Graduate Centre, Queen Mary University of London and online.

Image Credit: anne malewski cargocollective.com/marblesatsea

Researchers have argued that reading has provided ‘refuge’ for young people during the Covid-19 pandemic (Clark & Picton 2020), but there are still concerns about adolescent mental health following this period of disruption to ‘normal’ life. There are signs that the crisis is in retreat in the UK, but the future is uncertain. In this talk, I will discuss my British Academy-funded ‘Reading for Normal’ project, which offered enthusiastic teen readers a temporary community for talking about their own lives in relation to YA fiction during a period of lockdown. I will argue that reading contemporary British realist novels offered these young people recognisable versions of their own pre-pandemic worlds, and that exploring moments of ‘ordinariness’ together benefited them in various ways. I will also interrogate the notion of ‘normal’ and suggest ways that reading YA fiction might help enthusiastic teen readers do the same.

Dr Alison Waller is a Reader in Children’s Literature, English and Creative Writing at the University of Roehampton. Her latest monograph, Rereading Childhood Books: a Poetics (Bloomsbury 2019), examined how adults negotiate relationships with books from their pasts and she is now collaborating with schools and young people to create digital YA reading communities for her Covid-19 related project, ‘Reading for Normal’.

This event is free. Please book via Eventbrite and specify whether you are attending online or in person: https://bit.ly/3mIJxjY

11-20th November, Queen Mary is holding a series of events as part of Being Human Festival. These include Reimagining my city, a zine-making workshop for 7-13 year olds drawing inspiration from historical magazines created by East London children on the 13th, and How Queer Everything is Today!, a museum-wide programme of events at the V&A engaging with the world of Lewis Carroll, organised by us (Lucie and Kiera).

Other relevant events reflect on the publication of child poetry anthology Stepney Words in 1971 and subsequent school strikes, and the premier of a new film by young writers from Barking and Dagenham. The full programme of events is available on the Queen Mary and Being Human Festival websites: https://bit.ly/3FvjB45

All events are free but need to be booked via the links above.

9th May 2022 Centre for Childhood Cultures annual lecture:

Professor Erica Burman, Putting ‘Child as Method’ to Work?

Queen Mary University of London venue tbc, 6pm.

In this lecture, Prof Burman will outline the conceptual resources informing ‘Child as method’, an analytical approach she has developed. Drawing on postcolonial and migration studies, ‘Child as method’ explicates the necessary inscriptions of ‘child’ and ‘development’ across economic, sociocultural, and individual trajectories that position children and childhood as a key contributor to, and reflection of, wider geopolitical dynamics. In addition, Prof Burman will offer some examples of the interpretive and methodological possibilities of ‘Child as method’, alongside some further discussion of its other analytical contributions.

Save the date, further details and how to book will be circulated nearer the time.

Finally, two of the Rethinking Childhood Today series, Understanding Experience: Approaches to the Histories of Childhood and Youth and Putting ‘Children First’? Tentative Explorations of Alternative Imaginaries were recorded and are available via our website (under the event listings):

https://www.qmul.ac.uk/sllf/comparative-literature-and-culture/research/centre-for-childhood-cultures/