Historic recordings of children's authors

Recordings of children's authors including A A Milne, J R R Tolkien and Roald Dahl have been included in a new CD published by the British Library. The Spoken Word: Children's Writers (£9.95, 0712315182) contains a mixture of historic items drawn from the British Library Sound Archive, and new recordings.

The historic items include the only known recording of A A Milne reading Winnie-the-Pooh, while more modern recordings include authors Michael Bond, Penelope Lively, Raymond Briggs, Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson, Philip Pullman and Anne Fine.

British Library Sound Archive curator and recording producer Richard Fairman said: "There is nothing to equal the author's voice reading children's stories, just as A A Milne did to his son, and J R R Tolkien to his children.

"Too many of the great children's writers died without leaving us any recording of their voices—for example, Kenneth Grahame and Arthur Ransome—and there are others who left very little, such as Mary Norton and Enid Blyton.

"But we believe that the range of authors on this CD provides a fascinating reflection of children's storytelling over the past 100 years."