It's received wisdom that the English are uniquely child-unfriendly.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Every child is so different. Their experience growing up and their experience relating to the world has so much to do with their temperament, and their likes and their dislikes.
Parents are usually more careful to bestow knowledge on their children rather than virtue, the art of speaking well rather than doing well; but their manners should be of the greatest concern.
The air of the English is down-to-earth. They care about details; there's a tradition, but there's also a counter-culture: the younger generation versus the older generation and so on. But then that's well blended into a happy balance and crystallised into common sense.
I wanted to write for all children, even those kids who might see language as a threatening thing, even if English is their second language.
Things they don't understand always cause a sensation among the English.
It's natural for a child to assume that his or her own childhood is unremarkable.
My children are English, and both of their mothers were English.
There's something in this country that is so opposed to understanding the complexity of children.
I think that good parenting should allow children to be children. That naivety and slightly open way of looking at the world is very valuable.
One child must never be set above another, even in casual conversation, not to mention in speeches that circle the globe.