ABSTRACT
The Opies had collected their material from across the British Isles, initially via helpful teachers following an appeal in the Sunday Times in 1951, and aimed at as wide a geographical spread as possible. Iona had also travelled widely and interviewed children as they played. In one of her letters to me, Iona expressed the view that the children from an ethnic minority, being in a minority, would play games as the native English children did. In 1999, Iona was also a vital ingredient in helping me secure a grant from the Millennium Fund. Whatever Iona experienced as a child, as an adult she remembered what it was to be a child, and respected and valued children’s society and confidences. The Opies had enough games to be able to subdivide their chasing games into much more specific categories.
