This book explores how working-class writers in the 1960s and 1970s
significantly reshaped British children's literature through their
representations of working-class life and culture. Aidan Chambers, Alan
Garner and Robert Westall were examples of what Richard Hoggart termed
'scholarship boys' working-class individuals who were educated out of
their class through grammar school education. This book highlights the
role these writers played in changing the publishing and reviewing
practices of the British children's literature industry while offering
new readings of their novels featuring scholarship boys. As well as
drawing on the work of Raymond Williams and Pierre Bourdieu, and
referring to studies of scholarship boys in the fields of social science
and education, this book also explores personal interviews and
previously-unseen archival materials. Yielding significant insights on
British children's literature of the period, this book will be of
particular interest to scholars and students in the fields of children's
and working-class literature and of British popular culture.