Escaping from the classroom and embarking on a fabulous adventure has been a staple of children’s fiction for centuries. But British childhood has changed and many children now miss the security of the classroom. One of the nation’s most beloved storytellers wonders what will become of the summer in the childhood imagination.

“No doubt about it. June is the best month of all. For the school doors spring wide and September’s a billion years away.” – Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes

The future does not announce itself. It sneaks in unnoticed, like the tiny new-fangled mammals that feasted on the eggs of Triassic sauropods. No one walked away from the Battle of Bosworth muttering “well, that’s the Middle Ages done and dusted.” Richard Arkwright did not whoop “only four more sleeps to the Industrial Revolution” as he screwed the last screw into his spinning frame.

I can’t tell you exactly when British childhood changed. But I can tell you where and when I noticed.

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