Books by Yvonne Roberts
A History of Insects
by Yvonne Roberts
A History of Insects is about a girl of about eight or nine growing up in Pakistan in the days of Empire, getting very friendly with a Pakistani man who works in the household and treating him like a favourite uncle. I think it’s a brilliantly controlled book because you never come out of the character of the child who’s just looking on the adult world in bafflement.
Interviews where books by Yvonne Roberts were recommended
The best books on Childhood Innocence, recommended by Ann Widdecombe
The defining experience of childhood is not innocence but bafflement, argues British politician Ann Widdecombe. From the jungles of India and the drawing rooms of Edwardian England to colonial Pakistan and twentieth-century Africa, she recommends five of her favourite books focused on children trying to make sense of the world around them.
