I can only apologise for this review being so late! It appears to have been lost in the wires years after I read it.

First of all, this is an absolutely beautiful book. It begs to be picked up, like the titular Box, and throws the reader back in time to their first viewing of the TV series - and reading of the original novel.

Spectacular photos, new information and just a retrospective that reignites the love I had for this story. There was no way I could have known most of this back when I was a child (not least because we didn't have books like this, nor DVDs with special features!), but I'm so glad to reenter the magical world of the Box as an adult.

I've been recommending this to friends, and will continue to do so. A real treasure of a book.

This is an absolute must for those who have grown up with the Masefield stories, but especially "The Box of Delights". This is an academic work that is accessible to the general reader and brings the world of the stories to life. My only criticism is that it is too short. I would have loved to spend more time in the company of this magical set of characters. Thank you to the author, who is an expert on the works of Masefield.

For fans of The Box of Delights - the book and/or TV show - this is a great background resource.
There is information about John Masefield's life and works, insight into different aspects of the book and background to various adaptations. The text is accompanied by various facsimile texts, leaflets and other related paraphernalia. It's a perfect companion to the book and the show.

In the before times, a small group of us had a wonderful ritual where each year, somewhere during Advent, we'd gather to watch the BBC adaptation of The Box Of Delights, and that became the spot where I started feeling festive. Last year, we watched the BBC Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe instead; maybe that was what broke time and left us trapped in this grey limbo instead. Today should have been this year's installment, but for obvious reasons is not, so instead I've been consoling/tormenting myself with this handsome volume (and it is a lot prettier inside than that slightly unfortunate uncle-on-Photoshop cover might suggest).

Errington has written extensively on John Masefield before, but the other books seem largely aimed at an academic audience, whereas this ingenious hybrid at once contains everything you could ever want to know about The Box Of Delights, while also being a dippable coffee-table book, laid out in discrete double-page spreads on different topics pertaining to it. And to Masefield more generally, albeit with the links back to this particular book at the forefront – so the philistine aunt who made his orphaned childhood a misery is here largely as the model for Sylvia Daisy Pouncer. It's more surprising to learn that, despite his wonderful poems about ships, in fact he ran away from sea, and that when he returned to England it was as something of a desperado , "with about six pounds and a revolver". Maria Jones, with her longing for Christmas "to be brought up to date...it ought to have gangsters and aeroplanes and a lot of automatic pistols", would surely approve. Equally, one doesn't think of Masefield's first big literary success as being scandalous, but so it was - using the word 'bloody' and everything, like a veritable Sarah Kane of his day*. Still, he would go on to become sufficiently respectable to make Poet Laureate, and if he hadn't who knows whether he'd have got away with the research for Box Of Delights, like consulting with the Bishop of Chichester on who else Abner Brown would need to scrobble; even as is, one might argue that the Bishop was dangerously trusting in his detailed response.

Alongside such biographical material are the fruits of close reading and research in the archive, enabling Errington to offer everything from deleted scenes to pictures missing from English editions, and commentary on the various adaptations and illustrators of the story. Some of which surprised me: I love Quentin Blake, who doesn't, but he seems a very odd pairing for the mood of this particular tale. Other entries cover everything from the characters and filming locations, to pirates and possets. For the most part the tone is celebratory – who would take on a project like this for a book they didn't hold close to their heart? – but not blindly so: I think the funniest line for me might have been in the section on the unnecessary number of Jones children – "If Jemima has a problem claiming a personality, it is nothing to Susan. She is mentioned thirty-three times, but it doesn't help." Equally, he clearly has his doubts about the story's dream ending, which readers including Rosemary Sutcliff and Alan Garner have concluded must have been forced on Masefield. Alas, Errington can confirm that it's there right back to the manuscript, and has records of his insistence on subsequent versions using it. Still, as he says, the TV version cracked a way to make it not entirely suck, and even with that appended, there's still the magic which comes before it, not least that wonderful scene in the church, which captures so well a sentiment of which, again, Errington has found Masefield speaking elsewhere, "the beauty of its mystery and its link with eternity". Part of his goal here is clearly to convert Box fans into more general Masefield fans, but there's nothing remotely underhand about that when the glimpses of autobiography scattered around make clear that this was his own path. Rather, he comes across as something of a Cole Hawlings figure, benevolently sharing the delights of his long learning.

*He is also, apparently, the 870th most-quoted source in the OED, so if there's anyone still clinging to that twaddle about swearing being the sign of an impoverished vocabulary, there's a fact with which to smack 'em about the chops.

(Netgalley ARC)

Thanks to #NetGalley, the publisher Darton, Longman and Todd (or DLT Books), and the author Dr Philip W Errington for providing me with a digital and hard back copy of #OpeningTheBoxofDelights in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and not influenced in any way. This book gives an overviewf the life of John Masefield. It is well written and the illustrations and photographs are beautiful and really bring it to life. I highly recommend this book, it would make a great accompaniment to The Box of Delights.

The Box of Delights conjures up the images of television version in winter 1984- the six part series was hypnotic, festive and mystical. The passion for John Masefield and his writing is conveyed with passion by the author, Philip Errington.This fairly short book guides us through the life of John Masefield and the pivotal points of his life ; Poet Laureate, children’s author and an artistic philanthropist. The writing is engaging and gives the reader a glimpse into Masefield’s life. This is a charming accompaniment to the Box of Delights and should provide an interesting overview to “ fans “ of the book and an understanding of the author’s life. Having read the book to year six learners over previous Christmases, this will be an interesting extra to direct budding authors towards to build their appreciation as to how the Box of Delights was formed and that the path to being a writer is never smooth but with perseverance goals can be achieved.