Childhood

Available for over a year

Matthew Sweet and guests examine our current and past attitudes to childhood and asks whether nurturing children is something that we should deregulate or attempt to reform. Joining Matthew in the night waves studio are Jay Griffiths, author of a new book called Kith - in which she argues that children in Brazilian rain forests are happier than those in European and American cities; Hugh Cunningham, historian and author of the Invention of Childhood; Frank Furedi, sociologist, who coined the phrase paranoid parenting; Gabriel Gbadamosi, Irish-Nigerian poet, playwright and essayist and whose novel "Vauxhall" was inspired by his own childhood; and Meg Rosoff who writes fiction for children and young adults - for which she has been awarded the Carnegie medal.