Author(s): John Burningham

Biography and Memoir

In John Burningham's enchanting and truthful compendium of childhood the well known and the unknown contribute funny, moving, magical and occasionally dark childhood memories. From Michael Palin's memory of seaside holidays with his dad and Seamus Heaney's evocation of a crashed Cadbury's chocolate van ('a trail of silver papers up the road') to the institutional upbringing of the mixed-race child of a black GI in the 1950s and a typical rural childhood in the Scottish highlands, it is full of evocative memories. And woven into the mix is a rich selection of quotations and fifty more of John Burningham's witty and poignant drawings. With contributions from Seamus Heaney, Marina Mahler, Tom Maschler, Edna O'Brien, Andrew O'Hagan, Michael Palin, Maurice Sendak and many others, in support of Unicef.