The Guardian view on Frank Cottrell-Boyce as children’s laureate: a timely champion | Editorial

His belief in reading as the foundation of happiness ensures that young readers could not have a better advocate

The world’s most overrated book, according to the UK’s newly anointed children’s laureate, is William Golding’s dystopian Lord of the Flies. It is “an enjoyable romp that people have taken as a revelation about human nature, which could not be more wrong”, wrote Frank Cottrell-Boyce.

This opinion might sum up the aura of sunny optimism that surrounds one of the country’s most versatile and successful writers, who made the comment on publication of his own most recent novel for children, Noah’s Gold. But to insist that humanity is not innately bad is not to deny that urgent work is needed to enable it to release its potential. And the project starts with reading, said Mr Cottrell-Boyce at his investiture in Leeds. It means addressing the invisible privilege and inequality which give some children a bright future that is unimaginable to others.

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