It's not like her to put a professional foot wrong. The much-loved Wilson has, after all, sold more than 25 million books, was until recently the most borrowed author in British libraries, and is a Dame (the first children's author to be so honoured). But last year she dared to suggest that too much freedom and "being invited to engage with ideas that they simply don't have the maturity to deal with" meant that childhood today was over by the age of 11.

One aspect of modern childhood she finds particularly perplexing is the way children have so much freedom in many ways – and in others, none at all. "In most loving families, if a child has a point, they're allowed to make it; they're allowed to argue with their parents. Whereas, in my generation, you'd get a clap on your head if you dared argue with your dad.

"On the other hand, they aren't allowed to play out in the streets any more. They don't play imaginary games. When I was at school, everyone in the playground up to a certain age played imaginary games. They were quite prosaic – cowboys and indians, or the Famous Five. Now, apart from very little kids with teddies being offered biscuits, they don't play imaginatively with each other. Adults are a part of children's lives all the time now. It can be good to protect and encourage children, but it stops children learning to get along with other children."