The Children's Book Paperback – 7 May 2009

Very bad quality. So disappointing

Wonderful novel, set over the years 1895-1919. The main families are the Wellwoods - mother an E Nesbit-like character, the several children leading an apparently idyllic life with a tree house and wonderful Midsummer parties - and their wealthy (and half-German) cousins. Their circle includes various other households: the artistic Fludds; the Cains, whose father is curator at the V & A Museum; a local theatre director. But life is not always what it seems: one of the daughters becomes aware of 'horrible secrets bubbling up around her like hot geysers out of a lava-field.'While the lives of the individuals move on (and it feels like a large cast at first - I had to write down the various family trees), so does the outside world. While Arts and Crafts and literature occupies some, others are caught up in society's problems, investigating Fabianism, anarchy, Women's Suffrage... The reader is immersed in history as 'The Golden age' of Edwardian times moves into 'The Age of Lead' of war.In the earlier stages this seemed at times like an over-long, excessively detailed work, but as you come towards the end, and the it's absolutely beautiful and exquisitely sad for many of the characters.

Having read a few of the reviews here I was a little surprised by how mixed the feelings were about this book. I do agree with the fact that it is at times a little rambling (for me the sections were we suddenly leapt outside the story for a neutral narration of the events of the day seemed a little pointless), and there were a few places where things seemed to be repeated, but aside from that, I thought this was a wonderful book! You are thrown into the world of late 1800s, arts and crafts, Fabian society, with a huge list of interesting characters from an array of backgrounds and with varying ambitions and skills. A S Byatt manages to weave this all together as a believable story, with politics, suffrage and many other strands thrown in. For me the end part was the most effective...you know that the first world war must be looming in the lives of the characters, but still the abrupt end to the previously pastoral lives was so sudden when it came, that it really did bring it home again what an unimaginably awful time that was.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. There's quite a large cast of main characters and I really liked the transition of the younger characters - the children - to the forefront of the story as it progressed although I have to admit to feeling a bit muddled every so often in trying to remember who were the brothers/sisters/daughters/sons of whom. It's a novel full of human frailties and imagination both of which emerge in various forms as you get deeper into the story.There are sections throughout where Byatt is obviously trying to illustrate the period by using lots of historical references which I though were a little long-winded. I also found the poetry chapter near the end a bit indulgent (in that it didn't further the story). Despite this I found The Children's Book quite captivating.

"A war of ideas, and a war that consumed the world "The canvas of this book is so large that it drowns the characters in history and information about every possible political and social movement at the end of nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. A link is made with some of the characters through the writing of a children's book with stories started by the children but it is too disjointed to create a cohesion of the entire story.The children's tales are interesting and well conceived but no important enough to the writer; they get consumed in this fascinating period of history and the constant effort to present every subject at the same level of importance, ending with none of them having the time to grow or be explored enough." The book has so many fictional and historical characters that Byatt had to create a spreadsheet in Excel to keep track of them all.”A breathtaking work that lost oxygen in the flame of its passions and never got to the heights it wanted to achieve. But it is still a good read with moments of beauty and wonder, and some very sad descriptions of the first world war and the suffering women endured trying to get the right to vote and the right to education; that alone redeems and makes this book a good read.

I have to admit that,prior to happening upon THE CHILDREN'S BOOK,I had never heard of A.S.Byatt. When I bought it my very knowledgeable daughter said that she had tried some of Ms Byatts books and struggled but had read this one and had not found it easy,and she has a degree from Cambridge ! Well, she was right. It was not easy, BUT well worth the effort, it is a very enjoyable, beautifully written book written by a lady who had researched her subject very thoroughly indeed. Do not be fooled by the title, it's not a book FOR children, it's a book about the lives of children in the late 19th century and what happens as they reach adulthood in the early 20th. Historical detail is superbly accurate too. If you are thinking of buying this book DO IT TODAY !

I tried reading Possession by AS Byatt a few years ago, and despite it's glowing reputation, couldn't get on with it. I was attracted to this novel by its beautiful cover but put off by previous experience. Then I caught a glimpse of it over someone's shoulder on a plane, liked what I read and thought to give it a try.I'm glad I did, I thought this book was great. It concerns the Wellwood family, who live at a large house named Todefright in the country, and their wide network of family and friends : The London Wellwoods, The Cains, The Fludds, The Sterns and many more.Olive Wellwood is a children's writer and mother to seven children and two others that died in infancy. Though she has many children she favours oldest son Tom and does not conceal it. As she busies herself in her work, the children are largely reared by her spinster sister Violet, who thinks of herself as their true mother.The novel has a wide cast of both fictional and historical characters and is set initially in the Victorian era and runs all the way through to World War I. What I simply loved about this novel is the way that political and social ideas at the time, events, current affairs and philosophy are reflected through the eyes and experiences of all the characters. It is a totally remarkable production in terms of sheer research and effort, it is like a mini degree in comparative fiction. At times, particularly towards the end, it spends too much time on the history and not enough on the characters but the amount of topics it covers is astonishing :Socialism and MarxismThe impact of being the child of a children's authorEducation, particularly of women, in contrast to the importance of marriageThe Fabian Society of which many characters are membersParenthoodSexual abuseThe problems of being German in England in WWIArtistry and artistic geniusSuffrageNatureand many more. It's fascinating. Not just the issues but the characters themselves. Dorothy and her difficult relationship with Olive, Olive's complex relationship with Tom, the psychology of Tom himself a child of nature deeply damaged by his experience at public school. The bizarre marriage of Olive and Humphrey with their ongoing trysts. The women of the Fludd family and their Havisham like existence. Elsie Warren and her brother Phillip. Herbert Methley. The characters are just great.Towards the end their stories did begin to feel a little shoehorned - there is more to Hedda's story for example than the too short passages devoted to it, the same could be said for Robin Wellwood and Robin Oakshott. Though the book closes at 1918, some characters surviving and others not following the Great War; I really felt that if ever a book warranted a sequel it is this one and I really, really hope that Byatt writes one, so we can follow the lives our characters and their descendants through the historical events of the rest of the 20th Century.I hugely recommend this book, my best of 2012 thus far 10/10