I don’t usually blog about the books I read Dylan but I’m going to make an exception for The Magic Door. Read my main blog if you want to find out why.

If you have a boy between, say, 7 and 12, get online and get him this book. It’s old-fashioned and some of the concepts will seem strange to today’s youngsters, but it is a ripping good yarn. I’ve just finished reading it to 7-year old Dylan, and he thought it was great. I don’t think I’ve heard him laugh as much at the funny parts of any other book, and he was captivated by the ending. And, imperceptibly, he’s picked up some facts that he wouldn’t have got anywhere else, because Dan Billany was a teacher. No punches are pulled, either. Ancient Britons get stabbed and shot, and an allosaurus wreaks bloody havoc in modern-day 1940s London. None of this worried Dylan in the slightest and it makes me wonder whether some modern books pull their punches far too much in efforts to be politically correct.

It felt quite strange reading Dylan a book that had been read to me when I was at primary school back in the 50s, but I have to report that The Magic Door had lost none of its magic for me.