A "Kiddy-Lit." Digression: Or, the Power of Pooh.

I have been pondering stuff, of late - as one does - and one of my Ponders has been about children's literature and about how deeply entrancing and pulling one completely into another reality it was - in a way I seldom get pulled these days.


It wasn't a Serious Ponder, I neither feared, nor found, any Heffalumps - it was more a Pooh Sticks kind of Ponder - I went and spent a bit of time in Narnia, without, like Peter, leaving my great coat there - (SUCH a nice touch, to leave an important item of clothing in a magical country - and just the type of thing that DOES happen, I think!) - I dug up the Psammead and had a chat with the Phoenix - I peeked anxiously into Wonderland, and ran off timidly, as usual - I went and found wee Moomintroll, but he was fast asleep, and could not be woken, so there was no Moominland Midwinter to be had, but I did whisper in his ear - I visited Maria's Lilliputians, concerned as I am about their living circumstances in the denouement of "Mistress Masham's Repose", and found them, and their Oeconomy quite Flourishing and Prosperous, thank you - Ratty and Mole appeared to be happily caught, like flies in amber, in their perennial Edwardian Summer Afternoon, still Messing About in Boats, and I did catch a few notes from the Piper At The Gates of Dawn, the weasels, apparently, still cause trouble from time to time, and the field mice children still carol at Christmas .....


So - come and have a little meander through the worlds of your childhood favourites - take your shoes and socks off, pop on a pinny, make mud pies, wish on stars, find magical creatures aplenty and dally, digress, dawdle, get dirty, and generally have a fine time.

Please leave your sense at the door - your linearity at the lintel - no rational thought allowed.