Robert opie biography children

The names of Iona and Peter Opie — 'the Opies' — are synonymous with the collection and study of children's folklore. Their work covers both the traditions of the nursery passed from adult to child and those of older children passed primarily among themselves. They helped to establish childhood culture as a serious area of study and are still regarded as essential reading today.

Early lives​​ Peter Opie was born in in Cairo in the war-time British Protectorate or Sultanate of Egypt and was educated at Eton College.

Iona and Peter married in When expecting their first child the following year, they became fascinated by nursery rhymes and began to research into their history. In time they compiled The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes which traced both the history and variants of nursery rhymes and is still the classic work on the subject.

Iona Opie , p. The nursery rhyme research introduced the Opies to the chants and rhymes of older children, a selection of which appeared in I Saw Esau Four years later, they wrote a letter to the Sunday Times asking for further information.

Robert Opie is known for In Search of Our Throwaway History (), Greatest Chocolate Adverts of All Time () and What's Really in Our Food?

Iona later made tape recordings of children from around the country performing songs and singing games, and talking about their play. She also made regular visits to her local primary school in Liss, Hampshire, making notes on her observations over some years. Iona later estimated that they had received information from 20, children over some thirty years c.

While working on the next volume, Peter's health began to fail and he died of a heart attack in Iona completed The Singing Game and continued to work on the final volume they had planned, Children's Games with Things She also wrote The People in the Playground , based on her observations in the school playground at Liss.