Overview
Iona Opie is a world-renowned researcher and writer on European folklore and children's street culture. She is considered an authority on children's rhymes, street & playground games and the Mother Goose tradition.
Peter Opie, who was educated at Eton College, was an English specialist in children's literature, and the customs of schoolchildren. He was joint winner of the £1,000 Chosen Books competition, with his autobiographical discursion The Case of Being a Young Man (published in paperback, 1946).
The couple met and married during World War II. They worked together closely, from their home near Petersfield, Hampshire, conducting primary fieldwork, as well as library research, and interviewing thousands of children. In pursuing the folklore of contemporary childhood they directly recorded rhymes and games as they were currently being played. They collaborated on a number of celebrated books and, combined, produced over 30 works. They worked in their home in Alton, Hampshire.
Speaking in 2010, Iona speaks of working with her husband as being "like two of us in a very small boat and each had an oar and we were trying to row across the Atlantic. Also "We would never discuss ideas verbally except very late at night."
The 1959 book The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren was meant to counter the argument that mass media and the entertainment industry had ruined childhood traditions.
The Opies' collection of children's books and ephemera covers the 16th to 20th century and is the richest library of children's literature. It was begun in 1944, amounting in the end to 20,000 pieces. During 1988, it was donated to the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, after a two-year public appeal raised the £500,000 cost; currently, the books are being transferred to microfiche. Their large collection of historic toys and games is still owned by Iona Opie.
Read more about this topic: Iona And Peter Opie