“On the rare occasions that men talk to each other about these things, we discover that step-fathering a child whose father has died is very different again from the experience of trying to do it with a child whose father is alive but not on the scene, and that is different from the situation where the biological father is around sometimes.”

English children's author, poet and academic

Michael Rosen is an English children's author, poet, presenter, political columnist, broadcaster, activist, and academic. He is professor of children's literature in the Department of Educational Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. He has written more than 200 books for children and adults. Among his best-known titles are We're Going on a Bear Hunt and Sad Book. He served as Children's Laureate from 2007 to 2009 and won the 2023 PEN Pinter Prize from English PEN for a body of work praised as fearless.