Bedtime Stories for Grown-Ups

by Ben Holden

  FURTHER READING

  In different ways, the below works – among others – have proven invaluable, inspirational or simply of interest during the curation of this book. I recommend them all.

  The Complete Insomniac by Hilary Rubinstein (Jonathan Cape, 1974)

  Counting Sheep by Paul Martin (HarperCollins, 2002)

  Dreaming: A Very Short Introduction by J. Allan Hobson (OUP, 2005)

  The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an age of Artificial Light by Paul Bogard (4th Estate, 2013)

  In Praise of Slow: How a Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed by Carl Honoré (Orion, 2004)

  The Last of the Light: About Twilight by Peter Davidson (Reaktion Books, 2015)

  Night by A. Alvarez (Norton, 1995)

  Night Walking: A Nocturnal History of London by Matthew Beaumont (Verso, 2015)

  Nightwalk: A Journey to the Heart of Nature by Chris Yates (William Collins Books)

  Once Upon A Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale by Marina Warner (OUP, 2014)

  Sleep: A Very Short Introduction by Steven W. Lockley & Russell G. Foster (OUP, 2012)

  The Sleep Revolution and Thrive by Arianna Huffington (Penguin Random House, 2016 & 2014)

  Sleepfaring by Jim Horne (OUP, 2006)

  Worlds of Sleep by Lodewijk Brunt and Brigitte Steger [eds] (Frank & Timme, 2008)

  ABOUT READATHON

  BOOKS AND BEDTIME

  Do you remember the book under the bedclothes? If you’re the rebellious one who smuggled a torch beneath the covers after lights-out – to discover what happened in the next chapter of your Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton or C. S. Lewis – then you might just agree that hiding under a tent of blankets or duvet was one of childhood’s most magical experiences.

  What was going on?

  Well, at Readathon – the charity that champions children’s reading – we contend that reading for children and reading for adults are subtly but significantly different activities. For adults reading a book has connotations that are literary, virtuous, educational and cultural as well as just enjoyable. We grown-ups often regard reading as a means to self-improvement: we call intelligent people ‘well-read’; we class difficult or revered books as ‘literature’; we might sometimes feel a slight guilty pang that we don’t read as much as we’d like to; and if we read just for the fun of it, we may call it ‘holiday reading’ (‘Don’t judge me, it’s just a book for the beach!’).

  Yet, for children, reading is a wholly different proposition. Kids don’t pick up a book because they think they ought to or because it’s been shortlisted for a prize. They don’t struggle on to the end of a book from a sense of duty, even though they’re not enjoying it. That book under the bedclothes is read for sheer pleasure. All children’s reading is ‘holiday reading’!

  And what a pleasure it is. Go into any playground and you’ll see children riding horses, flying planes and scoring imaginary goals at Wembley. Their ability to pretend is better than ours: it’s natural for them to imagine that they are playing Quidditch with Harry Potter, outwitting Miss Trunchbull with Matilda or mastering the art of training a dragon with Hiccup.

  Readathon’s core objective is to encourage children to discover that magic – to read. We provide free resource kits for thousands of teachers in schools throughout the UK to run Readathon’s sponsored read. We aim to make reading fun – because we know, first-hand, how vital it is to a child’s development. Books incubate the imagination, propelling creative and analytical processes in the brain. This may be why, statistically, children who read for fun are more likely to become adults who succeed in all areas of life than those who don’t. Quite simply, without children who develop an imagination, we would not have adults who envisage how to change the world.

  Of course, reading gives lease to the imaginations of grown-ups too, which is why Ben’s book is such an inspired concept. It gives us grown-ups the longed-for permission to leap with abandon back into the deep end (to use a swimming analogy, in keeping with his watery themes), like we used to when children – limbs akimbo – splashing and bobbing about (or reading) purely for pleasure; as opposed to the dutiful lengths traversed in later life by the lane-swimmer, hoping to beat their best (intellectual) time. Bedtime Stories for Grown-Ups leads us by the hand back into the realm of the imagination, as Peter Pan might. The anthology invites, compels us even, to escape, not just because we want to, but because we must: in order to forge new paths of discovery, to help us to understand the world we live in.

  For the children who take part in Readathon’s sponsored read, there is yet another wonderful dimension to their reading; the funds they raise support our work in all the UK’s 30+ children’s hospitals. It is this crucial part of our work that first inspired Ben to partner so generously on this project with Readathon.

  Our specially designed mobile bookcases go right up to a child’s hospital bedside. They are stashed with a regular supply of brand-new books, from which children can choose a book to keep forever. Our professional storytellers also make regular visits to all the wards. They weave precious tales, each one tailored to the age, circumstances and dreams of the specific young patients they encounter.

  Before Readathon’s programme in hospitals began six years ago, children in hospital were often denied the comfort of bedtime stories. Second-hand books simply pose too much risk of infection, particularly to the immunocompromised on cancer wards and in isolation units.

  Today, Readathon provides 27,000 brand-new books and 224 storytelling days to more than 100,000 children – in over 30 hospitals – every year.

  It’s hard to quantify the value or importance of this work. Suffice to say that, for these children and their families, our stories are a lifeline. A book (or a well-spun tale) offers not only an escape to worlds far away from the hospital, but also an anchor to normal life. It imbues an ill child with renewed confidence while linking back to familiar routines. It provides a welcome distraction from the alien and sometimes scary sounds and sensations of the ward.

  As one of Ben’s selections – Richard Wilbur’s ‘A Barred Owl’ – tells us:

  Words which can make our terrors bravely clear,

  Can also thus domesticate a fear . . .

  For children in hospital, and, moreover, for their exhausted and anxious parents, Ben’s beautiful book will do just this. Like the father in Walt Whitman’s ‘On the Beach at Night’, this anthology reveals the hidden stars.

  Thank you, Ben.

  Brough Girling, Founder of Readathon

  To donate, or to order a Readathon kit for your school, please visit Readathon.org

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Once upon a time, I had an idea for an anthology.

  The idea quickly took root and then kept sprouting, day and night, much like a beanstalk. A dreamer, I was excited by its potential – I even started keeping a dream diary – and yet soon realized that it required approbation. To my joy, this was provided by various kind and brilliant souls.

  John Carey, Dame Margaret Drabble, Anne and Al Alvarez, and Heather Glen were all generous not only with their time but also their encouragement of the concept’s literary or intellectual merit.

  Colin Espie, Professor of Sleep Medicine at Oxford University, spoke at length with me at the outset of the process, and Professor Alice M. Gregory, of Goldsmiths, University of London, later went above-and-beyond with her feedback to the manuscript. I am indebted to them both for ensuring this layman’s science of sleep makes some sense. Any residual errors are all mine.

  Suzanne Baboneau and Ian Chapman championed this project from the off, sending me into dreamland. Their continual support and, later, Suzanne’s adroit editorial comments, propelled the book forward. Simon & Schuster, as a whole, but notably Gill Richardson, Toby Jones, Jessica Barratt, Suzanne King, Sophie Orme, Pip Watkins, and Jo Dickinson, have once again proven paragons among publishers. I am so grateful.

  I am greatly appreciative also of my agent, An
na Webber, for her warm and wise counsel.

  Jessi Gray helped make this project possible – through her expert navigation of the countless permissions and, moreover, with her good-humoured comradeship.

  Readathon’s work continues to inspire. Brough Girling, Justine Daniels, Cherry Land, Vicki Pember and Heidi Perry have proven wonderful partners. Thank you also to the teams at the Children’s Hospital of the John Radcliffe, Oxford, and Evelina Children’s Hospital at St Thomas’s in London, and to storytellers Adele Moss and Jennifer Lunn – for letting Suzanne and me join them on the wards and witness for ourselves the transformative effect a well-spun story can have on a sick child.

  Respect also to all the parents in children’s hospitals throughout the UK (and anywhere else). Some might have seen this collection on the Readathon trolleys by now and maybe even perused it. If so, I hope these pages might have offered some solace or respite.

  Mates and kindred spirits, including Laura Barber, Lucy Bright, Rebecca Carter, Rowan Cope, Tom Drewett, David Flusfeder, Natalie Galustian, Samar Hammam, Josh Hyams, Cara Jones, Caradoc King, Charlie King and Sam Eades, Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse, are all due my thanks. Many other friends, agents and publishers have gone to considerable trouble to help along the way. Apologies that I can’t acknowledge you all individually here.

  Thanks to my family: Mum and Dad, for all the stories; Joe, Sam, Ursula and Rosemary Holden; Cindy Blake (compiling this book has been just like making a mix CD); Ben and Marce Colegrave (and Bump); Chris, Siena and Violet Feige (and Bump); the Leventis clan; my godchildren, Jack Holden, Ava Thomas and Harlan Shrapnel; and, of course, Salome, George and Ione – sweet dreams are made of you . . .

  Finally, I pay tribute to the contributors who so graciously took part in this somewhat unconventional enterprise, taking the trouble not only to choose a bedtime story but also explain why; to Diana Athill for her wonderful Afterword; and to the authors (living or not) of the myriad pieces included herein. I’ll live happily, ever after, in the knowledge that I got to share and exalt in your majestic stories.

  INDEX

  A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function.

  (the articles ‘a’ and ‘the’ are ignored for the purposes of alphabetical sorting)

  ‘Adventure Story’ (Atwood), 282–3

  Afanas’ev, Aleksandr Nikolayevich, 72

  ‘After Apple Picking’ (Frost), 31–2

  ‘All the days and nights’ (Maxwell), 400–4

  Alvarez, A. (Al), 39–47, 467

  Alvarez, Anne, 39, 47

  ‘Another Bedtime Story’ (Stallings), 55–6

  ‘Ars Poetica?’ (Miłosz), 284–5

  Athill, Diana, 453–4

  Atwood, Margaret, 281–3, 467

  Baker, Nicholson, 315–20, 467–8

  Ballard, J. G., 171–84, 468

  Barker, Nicola, 340–65, 468

  ‘A Barred Owl’ (Wilbur), 237

  Barrie, J. M., 56, 468

  Belloc, Hilaire, 447, 468–9

  ‘Bells in the Morning’ (Yates), 420–3

  Berry, Wendell, 39, 469

  Blake, William, 286–7, 469

  Borges, Jorge Luis, 285, 469

  ‘By Chance’ (Cope), 233–4

  ‘Can A Corn’ (Walter), 268–70

  Carpenter, Humphrey, 58–9, 469–70

  Carter, Angela, 69–70, 71, 470

  Carter, Jimmy, 301–2, 470

  Causley, Charles, 72–4, 470–1

  Cervantes, Miguel de, 1

  Chekhov, Anton, 320–5, 471

  The Code of the Woosters (Wodehouse), 426–46

  Cohen, Leonard, 146–7, 471

  ‘Coins’ (Baker), 316–20

  Collins, Billy, 19–21

  The Colour of Magic (Pratchett), 287–9

  Cope, Wendy, 233–4, 471–2

  ‘Crediting Poetry’ (Heaney), 410

  Cunningham, Michael, 109–20, 472

  Dahl, Roald, 251–60, 472

  Davis, Lydia, 329, 472

  de la Mare, Walter, 163–7, 480

  Dekker, Thomas, 69, 473

  ‘Delay’ (Jennings), 300–1

  ‘Diamonds and Pearls: A Fairy Tale’ (Gaiman), 105–8

  Dickens, Charles, 35–7, 473

  Don Quixote (Cervantes), 1

  Drabble, Margaret, 162–3, 168

  ‘Dream Children: A Reverie’ (Lamb), 130–4

  ‘The Dream’ (Roethke), 398–9

  ‘Dreamtigers’ (Borges), 285

  ‘Dreamwood’ (Rich), 290

  ‘Dual Balls’ (Barker), 341–65

  ‘Dusko’s Taverna 1967’, 147

  ‘The Early Morning’ (Belloc), 447

  Ephron, Nora, 216–18, 473

  ‘Escape at Bedtime’ (Stevenson), 80

  ‘The Evening Star’ (Glück), 304–5

  ‘Evening Walk’ (Simic), 21–2

  An Evil Cradling (Keenan), 234–7

  ‘Fable’ (Causley), 73–4

  Fenton, James, 169–70, 473–4

  Fine, Anne, 295, 300

  ‘Fireflies in the Sea’ (Fenton), 169–70

  Follett, Ken, 424–6, 446

  Frost, Robert, 31–2, 474

  ‘Full Moon and Little Frieda’ (Hughes), 35

  Gaiman, Neil, 105–8, 474

  Glück, Louise, 304–5, 474–5

  ‘Going Up and Coming Down’ (Spark), 336–40

  ‘Golden Slumbers’ (Dekker), 69

  Grimm Brothers, 135–8, 475

  Gunn, Thom, 335, 475

  Gurney, Ivor, 295, 475

  Hadley, Tessa, 394–5, 398

  Hahn, Daniel, 330, 334

  ‘Happiest Moment’ (Davis), 329

  ‘The Happy Prince’ (Wilde), 92–103

  Harris, Joanne, 246, 250–1

  ‘A Haunted House’ (Woolf), 243–6

  ‘The Haunted Mind’ (Hawthorne), 237–43

  The Haunting of Hill House (Jackson), 246–50

  Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 237–43, 476

  ‘He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven’ (Yeats), 315

  Heaney, Seamus, 410–11, 476

  ‘How a Husband Weaned His Wife from Fairy Tales’ (Afanas’ev), 70–1

  ‘The Hug’ (Gunn), 335

  Hughes, Ted, 35, 476

  ‘The Idea of Age’ (Taylor), 123–9

  ‘The Ideal Man’ (O’Hara), 413–18

  ‘In the Evening’ (Collins), 19

  ‘An Irish Airman Foresees his Death’ (Yeats), 307–8

  Irving, Washington, 191–215, 476–7

  ‘The Isle of Lone’ (de la Mare), 163–7

  J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography (Carpenter), 59

  ‘Jacked’ (Cunningham), 109–20

  Jackson, Shirley, 246–50, 477

  Jansson, Tove, 277–81, 477

  Jenkins, Myesha, 306, 477

  Jennings, Elizabeth, 300–1, 477

  Keenan, Brian, 234–7, 478

  Kenyon, Jane, 20–1, 478

  Kipling, Rudyard, 295–300, 478

  Lamb, Charles, 130–4, 478–9

  ‘The Land’ (Kipling), 295–300

  Lear, Edward, 139–40, 479

  ‘Let Evening Come’ (Kenyon), 20–1

  ‘Letter to The Cosmos’ (Carter), 301–2

  ‘Lights Out’ (Thomas), 57–8

  ‘Lights Out’ (Williams), 57

  McCann, Colum, 60–3, 479

  Macfarlane, Robert, 291–4, 308, 310

  Mallarmé, Stéphane, 160–1, 479

  Mansfield, Katherine, 148–60, 479–80

  Maupassant, Guy de, 260–8, 480

  Maxwell, William, 400–4, 480–1

  The Message (Okri), 448–50

  Miłosz, Czesław, 284–5, 481

  ‘Morning
Song’ (Plath), 409

  Morris, William, 424, 481

  ‘The Moth and the Star’ (Thurber), 79–80

  ‘The Mouse, the Bird and the Sausage’ (Grimm, Grimm), 135–8

  Murakami, Haruki, 366–94, 481–2

  Murray, Les, 121–2, 482

  Nabokov, Vladimir, 145, 482

  Ness, Patrick, 340–1, 365

  Netherland (O’Neill), 326–9

  ‘Night Walks’ (Dickens), 36–7

  Nors, Dorthe, 330–4, 482

  Novak, B. J., 74–8, 482–3

  ‘Now Wakes the Sea’ (Ballard), 171–84

  ‘Nuptial Sleep’ (Rossetti), 325–6

  O’Donoghue, Bernard, 419, 483

  O’Hara, John, 412–18, 483

  Okri, Ben, 447–50, 483

  ‘Old Bud’ (Wright), 38–9

  Olds, Sharon, 365–6, 483

  ‘On a Beach at Night’ (Whitman), 32–4

  ‘On Not Shooting Sitting Birds’ (Rhys), 395–8

  Ondaatje, Michael, 147–8, 484

  ‘One Sail at Sea’ (Thomas), 161–2

  O’Neill, Joseph, 326–9, 484

  ‘Only This’ (Dahl), 252–60

  ‘Out on the River’ (Maupassant), 260–8

  ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’ (Lear), 139–40

  Peter Pan (Barrie), 56

  ‘Pillow’, 412

  ‘The Pipe’ (Mallarmé), 160–1

  Plath, Sylvia, 409, 484

  ‘Powder’ (Wolff), 64

  Pratchett, Terry, 287–9, 484–5

  The Princess (Tennyson), 170–1

  Pullman, Philip, 135, 485

  ‘The Reencounter’ (Singer), 219–25

  ‘The Rematch’ (Novak), 74–8

  ‘The Rescue’ (Heaney), 411