All This and a Bookshop Too
I brought this autobiography (her second volume) by Dorothy Butler back from Christmas, on loan from my sister. Initially, I thought it nice but not astounding, and thought it in the same vein as Barbara Anderson's very nice autobiography, about which no one said anything either. But increasingly, I found All This and a Bookshop Too quite moving. Butler had eight children, involved herself in Playcentre, ran her own bookshop, wrote books and most of all had a very ordinary and wonderful passion for books for children and for children's books. By 'ordinary,' I mean that she does not employ elaborate academic structures for her arguments, but passionate and intelligent observation and the deepest knowledge of the children's book publishing scene. I loved her stories of her family life as well as those of her book-related adventures. I had the sense of someone who approached parenting (and marriage and grandparenting) with the same warm intellect as she did her