"This important title should not be limited to academic libraries supporting graduate and undergraduate children's literature courses. It belongs in any library that serves a liberal-arts curriculum. It is highly readable, commandingly intelligent, and refreshingly jargon-free. A seminal work of criticism." School Library Journal.
"Butler's work... is a comprehensive, intellectually engaging and engaged, and enjoyable study of four important writers. He has read everything remotely connected with them, and he is a deeply sensitive and appreciative critic who recognizes and explains formal and aesthetic qualities as well as theoretical and thematic problems. Butler is a careful reader who never makes broad generalizations without supporting them; he teases out the fine distinctions between works and authors as well as the elements that draw them together; and he never loses sight of the larger theoretical and generic implications of his work. Four British Fantasists should be required reading for anyone working with contemporary fantasy writers." Naomi Wood, Children's Literature.
"Four British Fantasists is an exploration of the debt [Butler] owes as a scholar and a writer to Garner, Lively, Cooper, and Jones. Yet it also is a fine contribution to literary studies and a key critical text for those seeking to understand the works of these four individual authors, the development of contemporary British children's literature, or the role that place and culture can play in the creation of a work of fiction... The thoughtfulness and depth of the scholarship that went into this study, and the intriguing perspectives from which Butler considers these four premiere British fantasy authors, have resulted in a work that is well worth returning to again and again." Martha Hixon, Children's Literature Association Quarterly
"I recommend this as a strong addition to the library of any reviewer, critic or fantasy enthusiast as well as to the working fantasy writer. Understanding how these authors have been shaped by their background and the tropes they have used and the way they have in turn shaped the evolving genre will enhance a modern fantasy writer's understanding of their own field of work." Rhiannon Lassiter, Armadillo Magazine
"I highly recommend this serious, scholarly, and readable book." Rupert Loydell, Writing in Education
"Reading a critical study sometimes offers the same pleasure as reading literature can; so stimulating and intriguing is Charles Butler's book on four fantasy writers of the "second Golden Age" of British children's literature... Butler's consistently challenging and interesting Four British Fantasists is an inestimable contribution to studies of children's literature and suggests avenues not only for further discussion of the four writers, but also more in general for research focused on fantasy." Justyna Deszcz-Tryhubczak, Marvels & Tales
"This is a well-crafted, detailed study of four well-known British children's fantasy authors whose work has had a lasting impact on children's literature in Britain and elsewhere (including on Butler's own novels). It references interviews which Butler conducted with all four authors, as well current and older criticism. It was a pleasure to read, as well as an inspiration to go to the books under discussion, and it is a pleasure to recommend this book." Scholar's Blog
