The idealised world offered by classic children’s literature provides an escape from the disappointments of adult life, according to Dr Louise Joy.

A Director of Studies at Homerton College, Dr Joy will discuss her research as part of the Festival of Ideas in a lecture entitled ‘Re-reading Children’s Classics’.

She believes that we “cherish children’s classics precisely because they represent a world that does not resemble the world as we experience it.”

“Children’s classics are written by adults, valued by adults, published by adults and celebrated by adults. Instead of telling us about childhood or the child condition, they more obviously tell us something about the adult condition.”

Her upcoming book, Literature’s Children, will explore the themes that have ensured the enduring popularity of books such as A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh and Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows.

Overwhelmingly, the most celebrated works “represent a world which is liberated from self-consciousness, self-doubt, self-scrutiny and self-interest.”

Themes such as language and friendship also provide an insight into why the mythologized versions of childhood these texts represent are so appealing to adults dissatisfied with reality.

Dr Joy defines friendship as “non-narcissistic” in such classic works of children’s fiction. “Gone are the complicated, vexed relationships based on need, self-interest and power dynamics, so typical of the adult world.”

The directness of the language and “fulfilling form” of the conversation in such works is also appealing: “It satisfies adult fantasies for language to be used as a straightforward vehicle for communication.”