It may seem unlikely, but the ghost of playwright Noel Coward and his perfect rhyming couplets have haunted Julia Donaldson. ‘Noel Coward liked perfect rhymes,’ says the author, who has made rhyme a trademark of her more than 200 books. ‘He hated nursery rhymes such as “Little Tommy Tucker sings for his supper, what should we give him, brown bread and butter”, because supper and butter don't rhyme and it would irritate him. I would have to slightly curb those feelings when I was writing and remind myself that I’m not being judged if I include a poem that doesn't perfectly rhyme.’
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