The Literary Editor of the Spectator, Sam Leith, will be in conversation with his mother, Penny Junor, talking about his acclaimed history of childhood reading.

Applauded by the likes of Philip Pullman and Julia Donaldson, his book is an in depth tour through the magic of children's books, that will make you remember that first spark of love for reading. Sam and his mother will be discussing how reading helps inform and secure a child from their very earliest days through to the teenage years and beyond.

The stories we read as children matter. The best ones are indelible in our memories; reaching far beyond our childhoods, they are a window into our deepest hopes, joys and anxieties. They reveal our past – collective and individual, remembered and imagined – and invite us to dream up different futures.

In this pioneering history of the children’s literary canon, The Haunted Wood travels from the ancient tales of Aesop, through the Victorian and Edwardian golden age to new classics. Coming together to help raise fund for national reading charity Read for Good, this is an opportunity to see how mother and son understand the role that childhood reading played in both their lives, and discuss what they have learned - or wish they had learned.

Money raised will go to reading charity Read for Good: https://readforgood.org/