With a time setting from 1895 to 1919, The Children’s Book spans the quarter of a century between late-Victorian England and the aftermath of World War I. It focusses especially on the so-called ‘golden summer’ of the Edwardian era with its socially progressive movements such as the Arts and Crafts Movement and the Fabian Society, and its changed attitude towards children. After a brief overview of the period, this chapter focusses on how A.S. Byatt probes the ambivalence between myths of childhood and the hypocrisies of the social reformers, and how she illuminates the dark side of the Golden Age of children’s literature which led to the ruin of many of the authors’ own children. It discusses the theme of the compatibility or incompatibility of artistic creation and parental responsibility, specifically explored in the relationship between the protagonist Olive, a children’s writer, and her favourite child, Tom, her involuntary collaborative author, and its fatal consequence.