Colm O'Regan: Once upon a time... there was violence, cruelty and murder

Do you remember Stories for Eight Year Olds — and its companions, stories for under-fives, five-year-olds, six, going all the way up to the over-10s

Children's books edited by Sara and Stephen Corrin: 'These books are somewhere in your memory if you’re old enough to remember Sunday Night 'Glenroe' Fear.'

Sometimes children need to hear mad old stories. Like this one.

“… and Big Claus took the tether-peg mallet and hit Little Claus’s only horse on the forehead so that it tumbled down quite dead.”