Wild Child

From Huckleberry Finn to Peter Pan, from the Famous Five to The Secret Garden, we have always envisaged an idyllic and happy childhood taking place outdoors. We nostalgically recall the pre-Internet, pre-Playstation days of tree-climbing, tadpole-fishing, bike-riding and wide green spaces and agonise about the new generation's 'nature deficit disorder'. And yet, for all our middle-class handwringing over the disappearance of a greener yesteryear, the statistics are truly alarming: children can't identify the commonest of birds or plants, or even where food comes from; they are confined to home, shop, school and car. Children are increasingly alienated, not only from green spaces, but from the independence to play outside. The more we consider contemporary childhood, the more complex the picture becomes.

In this timely and approachable book, Patrick Barkham explores the role that wild things - and the freedom to run wild - shape children and our understanding of the way children develop. It combines Patrick's own experience growing up in the countryside and his experience of bringing up his own children with vivid nature writing, rich cultural history and a measured investigation of the vast body of psychological and sociological research that has been carried out in this field. It will challenge cliches about nature and modernity while offering a rich and varied picture of childhood and the 'wild' child.