CLASSIC books such as Just William and Little Women dominated a list of favourite chil-dren’s books of all time selected by children’s laureates today.
Quentin Blake, Anne Fine, Michael Morpur-go, Jacqueline Wilson and Michael Rosen revealed their choices, with not a Harry Potter adventure in sight.
Only five of the 35 books selected were published in the last 20 years, and a fifth of the titles were released in the 19th century.
Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist was the oldest, a clear 170 years before the newest title to make the grade – Mr Gum And The Dancing Bear, by Andy Stanton, published last year and described by Rosen as an “eye-watering comedy”.
Seven titles from the 1930s made it, includ-ing The Sword In The Stone, by TH White, Ballet Shoes, by Noel Streatfeild, and PL Travers’s classic, Mary Poppins.
Wilson said: “I would love to be Mary Poppins, admired by everyone, totally in control, never turning a hair.”
