In this searing, moving work of non-fiction, Frank Cottrell-Boyce tells the story of 21st century childhoods in Britain. Through deeply illuminating stories of real lives in homes, libraries, schools and the streets across the country he shows our children, and ourselves in a glaring new light.

'No home, no school, and especially no library should be without this story and this book' - Michael Morpurgo

'Original, surprising and compassionate without being earnest . . . Frank's book left me enraged, informed and moved' - Sathnam Sanghera

'This clarion call about the loss of delight and safety in children’s lives is also a reminder of the sheer magic of reading' - Guardian

During his time as Children’s Laureate, the bestselling author Frank Cottrell-Boyce travelled the country, meeting children and young people where they were: in schools and libraries, in young offenders’ institutions and prisons, many of them living in extremely precarious conditions.

As he met these children, he began to reflect on stories from his own childhood and on children’s lives in Britain during his lifetime – the imaginative connections we make and the sense of community that are so vital to our future adult selves.

A British Childhood tells the story of what it means to be young in modern Britain. It is at once a searing condemnation of our failure to look aftfter the nation’s most vulnerable citizens, and a call to arms to all of us to protect the innocence, and the imagination, of childhood.

'Especially powerful on poverty, reading and imagination' - The i

"Drawing on stories gathered across the country, alongside memories of his own Liverpool upbringing, Cottrell-Boyce examines what childhood in Britain looks like now. Part memoir, part manifesto, it is especially powerful on poverty, reading and imagination" - The i

"Lively and frequently moving . . . Some of the book’s most evocative passages recall Cottrell-Boyce’s childhood . . . A British Childhood makes a stirring case for children as central to any national story" - The Times

"Frank Cottrell-Boyce is an enchanter" - New Statesman

"This clarion call about the loss of delight and safety in children’s lives is also a reminder of the sheer magic of reading . . . He makes the case for how British childhood has changed, and why that matters, with trenchancy and heart. The children whose school assemblies he graces are lucky to have him" - Guardian

"[Cottrell-Boyce's] urgent and heartfelt new book always feels close to home. There is a wonderful moment early on in that book when all his hunches and instincts about the intangible things he has devoted his life to – family and storytelling and human connection – are given rigorous scientific grounding" - Observer