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Frank Cottrell-Boyce

June 2026

  • Little Girl reading a BookLittle girl reading a simple picture book.

    Book of the day
    A British Childhood by Frank Cottrell-Boyce review – are we raising a bookless generation?

    This clarion call about the impoverishment of children’s lives is also a reminder of the sheer magic of reading

May 2026

  • A woman reads a book to her young child, who is sitting on her lap

    Children’s reading should prioritise pleasure over learning, says laureate

    Frank Cottrell-Boyce tells MPs to focus on early-years reading, with more support for parents and nursery workers
  • Waterstones Children's Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce

    Frank Cottrell-Boyce calls for children’s reading to be treated as a ‘right’, in final laureate lecture

    Speaking at the Royal Institution, the author and screenwriter linked falling literacy rates to poverty, housing insecurity and social media
  • illustration of little boy at a desk before a typewriter

    The rise of the literary nepo baby? The children of famous novelists on following in their parents’ footsteps

    From Naomi Ishiguro to Jess Atwood Gibson, more children of high profile writers are becoming authors themselves. Parents and their literary offspring discuss the pressures of measuring up

December 2025

  • Mother and daughter reading together

    The Guardian view on the National Year of Reading 2026: time to start a healthy habit for life

    Editorial: A Children’s Booker prize, library cards for newborns and a major campaign – initiatives to encourage a love of books in children are a cause for celebration

October 2025

  • Frank Cottrell-Boyce

    double quotation markThe Children’s Booker prize will tell kids that they matter

    Frank Cottrell-Boyce
    As the number of children reading for pleasure hits a record low, the new award highlights its importance for wellbeing, and will give away thousands of books

July 2025

  • Faintly formidable … in Blue Black Permanent.

    Ranked
    Everybody’s favourite manic pixie dream aunt: Celia Imrie’s 20 best films – ranked!

    As Imrie turns 73, and ahead of her star turn in next month’s The Thursday Murder Club, we revisit the greatest big-screen hits of the actor who is so much more than Miss Babs

May 2025

  • four portraits: two men, two women

    Zadie Smith and Ian McEwan among 380 writers and groups to call Gaza war ‘genocide’

  • The Mouse and the Gruffalo walk in the forest in a still from the 2009 film The Gruffalo.

    The Guardian view on the Gruffalo: a well-timed comeback, wart and all

January 2025

  • Frank Cottrell-Boyce.

    Children facing a ‘happiness recession’ says laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce

  • Today guest editors Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Dwayne Fields, Sajid Javid, Irene Tracey, Floella Benjamin and Laura Kenny.

    The week in audio: Today’s guest editors; A Point of View; Monstrosities Mon Amour; Shipping Forecast Day – review

September 2024

  • Man browsing books in Manchester central library

    The Guardian view on public libraries: these vital spaces provide much more than books

    Editorial: Offering everything from coding clubs to company, they are more essential than ever as other services vanish

August 2024

  • A still from the animated film showing a hut on stilts on an island with birds flying by

    Kensuke’s Kingdom review – impeccably elegant animation of Michael Morpurgo adventure

    Beautifully hand-drawn, with a screenplay by Frank Cottrell Boyce exploring deep themes, is this adaptation too classy to have wide appeal?

July 2024

  • Kensuke’s Kingdom

    Kensuke’s Kingdom review – Michael Morpurgo’s desert island boy’s own adventure

    Morpurgo’s yarn about a kid on a round the world voyage is adapted by Frank Cottrell-Boyce and attractively packaged as a family-friendly animation
  • ‘We need a cultural economy that can sustain a career in the arts’ … Bayadère: The Ninth Life by Shobana Jeyasingh.

    ‘The arts stop us killing each other’: stars tell Labour how to rescue Britain’s downtrodden culture

    Steve McQueen, Tracey Emin, Steve Coogan, Adjoa Andoh, Danny Dyer, Jesse Darling and many more spell out what must be done to restore Britain’s cultural lifeblood, from ending elitism to supercharging libraries – and flooding schools with music
    • The Guardian view on Frank Cottrell-Boyce as children’s laureate: a timely champion

    • ‘Reading’s in danger’: Frank Cottrell-Boyce on books, kids – and the explosive power of Heidi

    • Frank Cottrell-Boyce chosen as new children’s laureate

July 2023

  • Frank Cottrell Boyce

    The Q&A
    Frank Cottrell-Boyce: ‘How often do you have sex? Did you really ask Desmond Tutu this question?’

    The writer on being lost for words with the king of Norway, throttling turkeys and what happens after we die (spoiler alert)

May 2023

  • Drag queen Lavinia Co-op

    Miranda Sawyer on podcasts and radio
    The week in audio: Revolutionary Letters; A Living Leg-End; Today in History With the Retrospectors and more – review

    Shoutouts for single documentaries and their makers, a daily dose of history, desert island children’s books – plus the big winners at this year’s audio Oscars
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