Interview with Frank Cottrell Boyce about his book A British Childhood. Discusses childhood’s profound, unaddressed transformation. Schools, isolated by austerity, now provide extensive welfare. Frictionless digital platforms erode rhythmic storytelling vital for development and bonding. The decline of bedtime stories removes crucial predictability and human connection. Champions reading repetition and child agency, noting digital engagement equates to unknowingly working for AI, stifling future imagination. Stresses addressing childhood poverty and housing insecurity for educational stability, advocating slower, reflective narrative engagement to cultivate agency.
