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How do you give hope to children when you're not feeling hopeful? What's the difference between optimism and hope? How do children's writers balance light and dark, joy and sadness? And what kind of language sustains and nurtures us through difficult times when we're young? Smriti Halls, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Kate Fox and Gaia Vince join Ian McMillan for a 'hope-ist' Verb.

Frank Cottrell-Boyce
Screenwriter and author of children’s books Frank Cottrell-Boyce, reads us his story about a world surrounded by cloud and a girl called Sunny who realises there's life beyond it. ‘Murcaster’ is a story written as a ‘hope’ to give to children during this pandemic (it’s one of over 100 such ‘hopes’ included in an anthology by Katherine Rundell ). Frank explains how the writing process itself is inevitably an act of hope, and discusses the influence of hymns – the way even their rhythms can communicate a kind of hopefulness. Frank also considers the way ‘hope’ is integral to the DNA of the ‘Doctor Who’ (he has written for the series) . His most recent book for children is ‘The Runaway Robot’.