Lewis Carroll, Kenneth Grahame, E Nesbit, Rudyard Kipling, The Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Louisa May Alcott, Oscar Wilde, Joseph Ayre (Read by), Sam Dale (Read by), Carolyn Pickles (Read by), Kenny Blyth (Read by), Catherine Cusack (Read by), Tony Turner (Read by), Sarah Ovens (Read by), Shaun Mason (Read by), Full cast (Read by)

BBC Classics Children’s Library

A timeless collection of 21 tales for all ages

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Summary

An irresistible anthology of folklore, fables and perennial favourites, including four novels and 17 short stories

This superlative collection of children's stories brings together a feast of fantastic fiction, read in full by a host of top narrators and with a comprehensive track listing for ease of listening. Comprising everything from fairytales for little ones to thrilling adventures for pre-teens, these unabridged readings are ideal for families to keep, treasure and dip into as their children grow.

Listed by suggested age range and with track numbers provided, the stories are as follows:

Ages 4+
1-12 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (read by Carolyn Pickles)
13 Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter (read by Jonny Holden)
14 The Elves and the Shoemaker by the Brothers Grimm (read by Sam Dale)
15 Too Clever By Half by E Nesbit (read by Helen Capp)
16 Tom Thumb by the Brothers Grimm (read by Shaun Mason)

Ages 7+
17-25 The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (read by Michael Bertenshaw)
26 How the Camel Got His Hump by Rudyard Kipling (read by Kenny Blyth)
27 The Emperor's New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen (read by Shaun Mason)
28 The Raspberry Worm by Zacharias Topelius (read by Debbie Korley)
29 The Tongue Cut Sparrow by Yei Theodora Ozaki (read by Sean Baker)
30 The Elephant's Child by Rudyard Kipling (read by Tony Turner)
31 The Magic Bed by Hartwell James (read by Chris Pavlo)
32 How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin by Rudyard Kipling (read by Tony Turner)
33 The Tortoise and the Rain by MI Ogumefu (read by Kenny Blyth)
34 The Baba Yaga by Katharine Pyle (read by Susan Jameson)

Ages 9+
35-41 The Call of the Wild by Jack London (read by Joseph Ayre)
42 Finn and the Scottish Giant by Harold F Hughes (read by Paul Hickey)
43 The Children's Joke by Louisa May Alcott (read by Catherine Cusack)
44 The Ants and the Treasure by MI Ogumefu (read by Kenny Blyth)
45 The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde (read by Tony Turner)
46-59 The Railway Children by E Nesbit (read by Sarah Ovens)

Production credits
First broadcast on BBC Sounds, 21 December 2018-1 November 2019

Produced by Simon Richardson (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Tortoise and the Rain, The Elephant's Child, The Ants and the Treasure, How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin, How the Camel Got His Hump, The Elves and the Shoemaker, The Happy Prince), Karen Holden (The Wind in the Willows), Martha Littlehailes (The Call of the Wild), Anne Bunting (The Railway Children), Anne Isger (Too Clever By Half, The Tongue Cut Sparrow, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Children's Joke, Finn and the Scottish Giant) and Mabel Wright (Tom Thumb, The Raspberry Worm, The Magic Bed, The Baba Yaga, Peter Rabbit)
The Raspberry Worm edited by Andrew Lang

© 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (p) 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

About the authors

Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll, born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-98), grew up in Cheshire in the village of Daresbury, the son of a parish priest. He was a brilliant mathematician, a skilled photographer and a meticulous letter and diary writer. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, inspired by Alice Liddell, the daughter of the Dean of Christ Church in Oxford, was published in 1865, followed by Through the Looking-Glass in 1871. He wrote numerous stories and poems for children including the nonsense poem The Hunting of the Snark and fairy stories Sylvie and Bruno.

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Kenneth Grahame

Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932) was born in Edinburgh, but grew up with relatives in Berkshire where he developed his love for the countryside surrounding the upper parts of the River Thames. He was educated at St Edward's in Oxford, but instead of going on to Oxford University he joined the Bank of England, where he rose to become Secretary. He wrote several books including The Golden Age and Dream Days which includes the short story 'The Reluctant Dragon' (later made into a Disney movie). Kenneth Grahame developed the character of Toad in The Wind in the Willows to amuse his young son, Alistair. It was published in 1908 and still remains a best-loved children's classic.

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E Nesbit

Edith Nesbit was a mischievous child who grew up into an unconventional adult. With her husband, Hubert Bland, she was one of the founder members of the socialist Fabian Society; their household became a centre of the socialist and literary circles of the times. E. Nesbit turned late to children's writing. Her first children's book, The Treasure Seekers, was published in 1899 to great acclaim. Other books featuring the Bastable children followed, and a series of magical fantasy books, including Five Children and It also became very popular. The Railway Children was first published monthly in the London Magazine in 1905, and published as a book in 1906, which has been in print ever since.

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Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott was born on 29 November 1832 in Pennsylvania. Her father was friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Thoreau. Alcott started selling stories in order to help provide financial support for her family. Her first book was Flower Fables (1854). She worked as a nurse during the American Civil War and in 1863 she published Hospital Sketches, which was based on her experiences. Little Women was published in 1868 and was based on her life growing up with her three sisters. She followed it with three sequels, Good Wives (1869), Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886) and she also wrote other books for both children and adults. Louisa May Alcott was an abolitionist and a campaigner for women's rights. She died on 6 March 1888.

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Oscar Wilde

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854. He went to Trinity College, Dublin and then to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he began to propagandize the new Aesthetic (or 'Art for Art's Sake') Movement.

Despite winning a first and the Newdigate Prize for Poetry, Wilde failed to obtain an Oxford scholarship, and was forced to earn a living by lecturing and writing for periodicals. After his marriage to Constance Lloyd in 1884, he tried to establish himself as a writer, but with little initial success. However, his three volumes of short fiction, The Happy Prince (1888), Lord Arthur Savile's Crime (1891) and A House of Pomegranates (1891), together with his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), gradually won him a reputation as a modern writer with an original talent, a reputation confirmed and enhanced by the phenomenal success of his Society Comedies - Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest, all performed on the West End stage between 1892 and 1895.

Success, however, was short-lived. In 1891 Wilde had met and fallen extravagantly in love with Lord Alfred Douglas. In 1895, when his success as a dramatist was at its height, Wilde brought an unsuccessful libel action against Douglas's father, the Marquess of Queensberry. Wilde lost the case and two trials later was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for acts of gross indecency. As a result of this experience he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol. He was released from prison in 1897 and went into an immediate self-imposed exile on the Continent. He died in Paris in ignominy in 1900.

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