Writes John Walsh at the end of his 2,400 word article in the Independent:
It would be foolish, for all kinds of reasons, to suggest that the lives of contemporary children's authors will turn out to have been battlefields of neurosis, manipulation and absent parents--but the miseries of the dead ones are fair game.
In case there's already enough to annoy/depress you in the media, here's a quick summary: Roald Dahl was an insufferable racist prick to absolutely everyone. JM Barrie killed his brother and stole a bunch of kids, who he terrorized as Captain Hook. AA Milne wished...wished he'd been more successful as a playwright. Kenneth Grahame [he wrote Wind in the Willows, I had to look it up] got fired once and was unhappily married. And Enid Blyton [who wrote 600 million books I've never heard of, plus Noddy, who sucks] was unpleasant and, according to her daughter's later writings, she ignored her children.
Really, I have no idea what this is all about. But five bucks says the stories that eventually come out about the Pinkalicious sisters--and the split that inflicted the truly awful non-colabo Goldilicious on the world--are gonna make Roald Dahl look like Mister Freaking Rogers. You heard it here first.
Tales of the unexpected: The dark side of bedtime stories [independent.co.uk]
