What makes this edition special is that it is copiously illustrated with carefully selected images from real life reflecting the period in which the story itself is set. Jenny Agutter has written a foreword to this fine book which we know will become much sought after volume amongst collectors. 'They were not railway children to begin with. I don't suppose they had ever thought about railways except as means of getting to Maskelyne and Cooke's, the Pantomime, Zoölogical Gardens, and Madame Tussaud's.
They were just ordinary suburban children, and they lived with their Father and Mother in an ordinary red-brick-fronted villa, with coloured glass in the front door, a tiled passage that was called a hall, a bath-room with hot and cold water, electric bells, French windows, and a good deal of white paint, and "every modern convenience," as the house-agents say. There were three of them. Roberta was the eldest. Of course, Mothers never have favourites, but if their Mother had had a favourite, it might have been Roberta. Next came Peter, who wished to be an Engineer when he grew up; and the youngest was Phyllis, who meant extremely well' So starts the classic story which sets the scene so admir
Edith Nesbit was born on 19th August 1858, The Railway Children was first published in serial form in 1904 in The London Magazine. The first hardcover edition was published in 1906. Edith wrote or co-wrote over 40 books. She died on 4th May 1924.