Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Palgrave Macmillan

British Working-Class Writing for Children

Scholarship Boys in the Mid-Twentieth Century

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

Authors:
  1. Haru Takiuchi

    1. Funabashi-shi, Japan

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Represents the first full-length study of the working-class in mid-twentieth-century British children’s books
  • Contributes more broadly to the understanding of British working-class literature in the mid-twentieth century
  • Makes use of original interviews and previously unseen archival materials
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: Critical Approaches to Children's Literature (CRACL)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-viii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Haru Takiuchi
    Pages 1-22

  3. Children’s Book Publishing and the Working-Class Culture

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 23-23
      Download chapter PDF

    2. Class Culture and Children’s Book Publishing: Leila Berg’s Nippers and Aidan Chambers’ Topliner

      • Haru Takiuchi
      Pages 25-46

    3. Bad Language or Working-Class Language: Robert Westall’s The Machine Gunners

      • Haru Takiuchi
      Pages 47-66

  4. Scholarship Boy Experiences in Children’s Books

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 67-67
      Download chapter PDF

    2. Education and Uncertainty in Aidan Chamber’s Dance on My Grave

      • Haru Takiuchi
      Pages 69-86

    3. Aidan Chambers’ Breaktime: Class, Anxiety and Home

      • Haru Takiuchi
      Pages 87-104

    4. Alan Garner’s Red Shift: The Anger of the Scholarship Boy

      • Haru Takiuchi
      Pages 105-128

  5. Children’s Book Criticism and Scholarship Boys

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 129-129
      Download chapter PDF

    2. Class and Children’s Book Criticism

      • Haru Takiuchi
      Pages 131-152

    3. The Conclusion of The Owl Service: Critical Ignorance of Class Anger

      • Haru Takiuchi
      Pages 153-173

    4. Robert Westall’s Fathom Five: The Scholarship Boy and Socialism

      • Haru Takiuchi
      Pages 175-204

    5. Conclusion: “The Awareness of Standing Between Two Cultures”

      • Haru Takiuchi
      Pages 205-212

  6. Back Matter

    Pages 213-218
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

This book explores how working-class writers in the 1960s and 1970s significantly reshaped British children’s literature through their representations of working-class life and culture. Aidan Chambers, Alan Garner and Robert Westall were examples of what Richard Hoggart termed ‘scholarship boys’: working-class individuals who were educated out of their class through grammar school education. This book highlights the role these writers played in changing the publishing and reviewing practices of the British children's literature industry while offering new readings of their novels featuring scholarship boys. As well as drawing on the work of Raymond Williams and Pierre Bourdieu, and referring to studies of scholarship boys in the fields of social science and education, this book also explores personal interviews and previously-unseen archival materials. Yielding significant insights on British children’s literature of the period, this book will be of particular interest to scholars and students in the fields of children’s and working-class literature and of British popular culture.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Funabashi-shi, Japan

    Haru Takiuchi

About the author

Haru Takiuchi is Part-Time Lecturer at the University of Tokyo, Japan. He holds a PhD in Children’s Literature from Newcastle University. 

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation