So Much To Tell: The Biography of Kaye Webb, By Valerie Grove

Puffin club pioneer who caroused with Dylan Thomas

Born in 1914, the journalist and publisher Kaye Webb lived a colourful life: she edited a successful wartime magazine; caroused with Dylan Thomas; starred on radio and television; and married, and later divorced, the artist Ronald Searle.

But she is best known as founder of the Puffin Club, which inspired generations of young readers by putting them in touch with their favourite authors.

While not especially penetrating, Valerie Grove's biography is warm, enjoyable, fast-paced, vividly detailed, and above all, timely: as our libraries slam shut, it seems fitting to celebrate a woman who did more than most to foster a love of books in children.