Bestselling children's author Katherine Rundell discusses the extraordinary life of E Nesbit who wrote The Railway Children and Five Children And It.
Katherine praises her “bold unwillingness to speak down to children” and reflects that “she never seemed to forget what it was like to be a child”. E, or Edith, Nesbit’s conjuring of mythical beasts like the Phoenix and the sand fairy the Psammead was a particular inspiration to Katherine Rundell who says "you can really believe they are flesh and blood”. Edith Nesbit has also influenced the work of Jacqueline Wilson and JK Rowling who have both praised this trailblazing writer.
She had a particularly colourful private life and a very open marriage. She flouted the social conventions of the time. She was married when seven months pregnant. Her husband had children outside of their relationship and Edith then raised them as her own. She was a feminist but didn't believe in Votes for Women. She co-founded the Fabian Society and kept company with the likes of George Bernard Shaw and Noel Coward.
Katherine Rundell is joined by Elisabeth Galvin who has written a biography of E Nesbit. The programme features an excerpt from The Phoenix And The Carpet by E Nesbit as well as clips from the 1970 film of The Railway Children distributed by EMI films and the 1991 BBC television adaptation of Five Children And It.
Presenter: Matthew Parris Producer: Robin Markwell
William Lever, Lord Leverhulme, founder of Unilever
Noor-Un-Nissa Inayat Khan
Jeanne Baret, first woman to sail round the globe
Rory Sutherland on Johnny Ramone
JRR Tolkien, creator of The Hobbit
Ruth Rogers on James Baldwin
Yanis Varoufakis on Hypatia
Dorothy Byrne on Catherine of Siena
Peggy Seeger on her husband Ewan MacColl
Josiah Wedgwood, master potter
Frantz Fanon
Althea Gibson
Yehudi Menuhin
Hans Christian Andersen
The Surprise Lives
Rosie Millard on Edward III
Ben Miller on William Hazlitt
Arlo Parks on Elliott Smith
Jonathan Dimbleby on Harry Hopkins
KT Tunstall on Ivor Cutler
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Global News Podcast
The Infinite Monkey Cage
Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4
You’re Dead to Me
Elis James and John Robins