Notes from the North

‘The imagination is the primary and first site of resistance. The market abhors all values that are not the values of the market. Children’s books, to a great extent, because they are written for those who cannot participate in the market, can offer resistance to a vision of the good life which is built on a hegemony of acquisition. Children’s books insist in having faith in vast truths that lie beyond consumption and display. Their utopianism is that of the Moomins and Pippi Longstocking: it offers an experiential microcosm of a more ideal world. ( Kathleen Rundell, London Review of Books February 2025 ) It was reading Rundell’s thoughts on the importance of books for children of all ages, that led me to visit Scotland’s Storytelling Centre on the ground floor of John Knox’s house on the High Street. The Centre is free to visit (you pay £7 to visit the museum in the rest of the house which is where John Knox lived in the last years of his life). It is open from 10 am – 6 pm seven day...