The Railway Children

Description

Although E. Nesbit regarded her poetry as her most important work, it is her children's books (written 'to keep the house going') that ensured her lasting fame and which are still enjoyed with such affection today. Her readers have their oen favourites, but the film version of THE RAILWAY CHILDREN, with Jenny Agutter as Roberta, the eldest daughter of the man unjustly sent to prison, and the Bernard Cribbins as the friendly railway porter, brought the book to a new generation of readers who love it for Roberta's courage and the satisfaction of the ending when her father is vindicated and restored to his family. The film is regularly shown on British Television.

E. Nesbit (1858 - 1924) wrote some of the best-loved children's books of the turn-of-the-century, including The Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet, and The Railway Children. Edith Nesbit was friends with many of the great literary figures of her day, including George Bernard Shaw, William Morris, and Laurence Housman. H. G. Wells once wrote to her that 'every self-respecting family will buy [your books]- and I knock my forehead on the ground at your feet in the vigour of my admiration of your easy artistry.'