The National Trust needs children more than ever
I must thank Harry Mount for alerting me to the National Trust’s forthcoming partnership with the Japanese cartoon leviathon Pokémon, although he provided no such early warning system for their partnership with the British cartoon character Shaun the Sheep in 2025. I was thrilled to see that one of my local Trust properties is taking part. In the 30 years since Pokémon’s launch in Japan, it has become a $90 billion media franchise, stretching across TV shows, films, video games, trading cards and toys, transcending barriers of language, nationality, age, class and sex. According to YouGov, one in five Brits has played Pokémon Go, rising to more than half of Gen Z.
