Refuge and Imagination

Places of Peace in Childhood

Abstract

I draw fragments from a large sample of environmental autobiographies to explore the theme of the need for children to escape from the strictures of the adult world to places of refuge and peace, places to dream. Such places are often remembered in autobiographical writing and occur at every scale from a cupboard to a broad landscape. They are described with great passion and are claimed by the authors to have significantly contributed to their mental health. It is this two-sided experience, both negative and positive, both refuge and imaginative dreaming, thathis article explores.