In 1930, due to the death of Robert Bridges, a new Poet Laureate was needed. King George V appointed Masefield, who remained in office until his death in 1967. Masefield took his appointment seriously and produced a large quantity of verse. Poems composed in his official capacity were sent to The Times. Masefield’s humility was shown by his inclusion of a stamped envelope with each submission so that his composition could be returned if it were found unacceptable for publication. Kay's toys (known as "the guards") have been taken away from him at the start of the book, apparently because they will remind him of his parents; there is a strong implication that Kay's parents are deceased. The guards play little part in the main narrative but have a critical role in the final recovery of the treasure. a b Kingsley, Madeleine (17 November 1984), "A Box Full of Magic", Radio Times, pp.101–103 , retrieved 14 October 2017

When freed from lessons he explores and investigates the surroundings of his ancestral home of Seekings, uncovering a nefarious plot to steal some long-lost treasure, thus following up family traditions and living up to the family name. The Harker shield displays three oreilles couped proper (that is, three disembodied flesh-coloured ears) and so, true to form, Kay eavesdrops, harkening to conversations and learning from what he overhears. A Visit from St. Nicholas" (also known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas", 1823) attributed to Clement Clarke Moore Piers Torday (30 November 2017). "Long before Harry Potter, The Box of Delights remade children's fantasy". The Guardian . Retrieved 7 January 2018. Masefield’s first volume of oetry, Salt-Water Ballads, was published in 1902, however, it was not until the publication of The Everlasting Mercy in 1911 that he made his mark on the literary scene. The success of his second book was followed by the publication of several long narrative poems, including Dauber (1914) and Reynard the Fox (1919).The cellar rat is Kay's ally in The Midnight Folk, supplying information in return for raisins, bacon rind and (most appreciated by Rat) a "Naggy" (haggis). In The Box of Delights, the rat has come to hate Kay (because he expects Kay to get a dog), so Abner Brown is able to buy information from him with rum and mouldy cheese. John Masefield (1878-1967) was born in Herefordshire, England. After being orphaned at an early age, he was sent to sea aboard the school-ship HMS Conway in preparation for a naval career. Masefield’s apprenticeship was disastrous—he was classified as a Distressed British Seaman after a voyage around Cape Horn—and he soon left the ship. Arrangements were then made for him to join another ship in New York. But Masefield had other plans: he deserted ship vowing “to be a writer, come what might.” At seventeen Masefield was living as a vagrant in America. He found work as a bar hand but eventually secured employment at a carpet factory. Thinking that journalism might allow him to write for a living, Masefield returned to England in 1897. Masefield doesn't put any distance between Kay, his surreal adventures, and the reader. They just happen, don't question it. Don't overthink it either: channel your Inner Rich Orphan and indulge in some dream logic. There aren't even any chapters to break it all up, so when you're in, you're in.

Abner Brown is the principal villain in both novels, but plays a more prominent role in The Box of Delights. John Masefield threaded a number of common themes through a series of his books; even those novels aimed at children shared places, people and storylines with some of his adult novels. One key recurring theme is the nautical visit of a member of the Harker family to the fictional islands of Santa Barbara. In The Midnight Folk, Kay's great-grandfather is endowed with a great treasure there; in other novels the actual nature of the seafaring Harker's relationship to Kay is less clear. A great many incidental characters and places are shared across Masefield's novels, although the fine details of such recurrences are often contradictory from novel to novel. Hely-Hutchinson: The BBC man who created the ultimate Christmas music". About the BBC. 13 December 2016.

When Masefield was 23, he met his future wife, Constance Crommelin, who was 35. Educated in classics and English Literature, and a mathematics teacher, Constance was a perfect match for Masefield despite the difference in age. The couple had two children (Judith, born in 1904, and Lewis, in 1910). Re-reading The Midnight Folk on kindle as an adult I was finally able to decode the arcane references to the classics and Latin grammar early on in the story but still feel I am somehow missing the point. The weird dislocations of the story, which constantly jumps between reality/ dreamworld/ nightmare/ magic / past and present etc , just don't make sense to me any more now, than as a child. I mean to say... I can follow them.... But I don't like the confusing jumble. Of course that is the whole point of magic....it doesn't make sense and transcends the real world, but personally I prefer more structure and less confusion in my stories. Many times Masefield tells the reader through Kay... Oh it must have been a dream.... To account for the confusion ... But then after all it's not a dream.... John Masefield is growing younger every year. He was old in Multitude and Solitude. He had grown appreciably younger in Sard Harker. He is a child among the children in "The Midnight Folk,” which is incomparably the best book of its kind that has appeared since Mrs. Hubert Bland died. — Illustrated London News, 1927. [2]

Twas the Night Before Christmas: Edited by Santa Claus for the Benefit of Children of the 21st Century" (2012) being Pamela McColl "smoke-free" edit of Clement Clarke Moore's poem

Funny little cat takes funny little boy on all sorts of funny adventures. This is a funny dream of book. And this is a funny, dreamy cat named Digsy: Mr. Masefield has written the sort of book that grown-up people like to give a child for Christmas, and then enjoy reading for themselves. The Midnight Folk is a story to be read aloud in the traditional Winter fireside setting….The style is imaginative and glamorous…Children will like to hear their elders read the tale.”– The New York Times The Box of Delights is a children's fantasy novel by John Masefield. It is a sequel to The Midnight Folk, and was first published in 1935. It is also known as When The Wolves Were Running. Young Kay (whom we may imagine as around seven) inhabits a magic realist world midway between dreams, imagination and daily life, one inhabited by a combination of guardians and governesses, servants and smugglers, wild animals and witches, knights and toys, ancestors and archvillains. John Masefield adapted an opera libretto from his book, also incorporating elements of The Midnight Folk, which was eventually set to music in the late 1980s by the British composer Robert Steadman.

In 1885 orphan Kay Harker finds himself under the guardianship of the distant Sir Theopompous and the stern tutelage of an unnamed governess. His former companions, a collection of stuffed toys, have evidently been removed, their place taken by the declension of Latin adjectives for 'sharp', and by exercises in French, Divinity and the like. I’m told that this was written by John Masefield, a well-known and highly respected poet in his adult years. Perhaps so, but I’m pretty sure that in addition to channeling his inner child, he must have had a willing collaborator of tender years to help him work the magic, follow the merry chase and find his way home.

Part of my own ease comes from remembering myself at the same age, with the same sense of life being a dreamscape where reality was of one substance with imaginings. Maybe a lot of the novel's strange-yet-familiar quality comes from the author's own remembered past being a kind of foreign country, where "they do things differently". Sylvia Daisy Pouncer dishonourably leaves her role as Kay's governess at the end of The Midnight Folk, only to return as Abner Brown's wife in The Box of Delights. I thought it was interesting, but as a historical artifact, "fancy, that used to be the sort of book one would give a child and expect them to enjoy it!" Le Père Martin" (1888) by Ruben Saillens and unwittingly plagiarized as " Papa Panov's Special Christmas" by Leo Tolstoy