Why is it parents are missing from the best children's fiction?
This question brought Children's Laureate Anne Fine, novelists Nina Bawden and Beverley Naidoo and academic Nick Tucker together in the Roald Dahl Platform Debate, chaired by Jonathan Douglas.
The obvious answer is parents can be a bit of a nuisance - they get in the way of children having adventures.
It would be hard to imagine, the children of Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons getting up to half the things they did if there was a meddlesome adult nagging about the dangers of their escapades.
With parents absent, a world of exciting possibilities is opened up.
Review by Kim Protheroe
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