Both these books address a major contemporary concern - the provision of care for young children - yet neither pair of authors mentions the others’ work. This to me underlines one of the difficulties of the child care debate - the various professionals involved in writing and researching seem unwilling to recognise that different methods can yield valuable data.

Separation and the Very Young is a fascinating book, particularly for someone of my generation lucky enough to be training at the Tavistock when the Robertson were there. Each part of the film series Young Children in Brief Separation was first shown there and had a profound effect