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Sat 04 Apr 2009A tale fashioned from sturdy strands
FICTION:PATRICIA CRAIGreviews The Children’s BookBy A.S.Byatt Chatto Windus 614pp £18 99
IN THE EARLY months of 1903, E Nesbit visited the British Museum in search of inspiration for her next children’s book. While she was there, she talked to E Wallis Budge, the Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian antiquities, and as a result The Story of the Amuletwas published in 1906 and dedicated to Dr Wallis Budge. The Children’s Book, AS Byatt’s compelling new novel, takes this visit as its starting point, but relocates it to the South Kensington Museum – not yet the VA – moves it back some years to 1895, and creates a distinctive character, Olive Wellwood, to fit the Nesbit role.
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